Susan Page praised for questions but criticized for failing to follow up during VP debate

New York(CNN Business) Of all the critical questions that were asked and ignored on Wednesday night, this one was the most important, in my humble question:

"One of you will make history on January 20th," Susan Page said, "you will be the Vice President to the oldest President the United States has ever had." Page asked Mike Pence, and then Kamala Harris, if they have spoken with their running mates about "the issue of presidential disability."

Both candidates dodged the issue, which is a shame, because it won't come up again on such a literal or massive stage. Donald Trump is 74 and clearly still sick with Covid-19. Joe Biden is 77 and will be 78 on inauguration day. Purely from a statistical standpoint, "presidential disability" merits serious conversation.

"Neither of them would even address that question, which says to me, this is an issue that ought to be discussed," Page said on CNN's "New Day" Thursday morning.

Viewers of the debate were left wanting more. After Pence and Harris used the time to give speeches, Page should have asked the question again. And again! The debate commission format meant that Page was required to change the subject every nine minutes or so, but even so, the topic needed a followup.

Page's poor — and inexcusable — performance

Oliver Darcy wrote: "Poor performances by the moderators is a theme of this fall's debates thus far. Susan Page displayed almost no ability on Wednesday night to instill order as Harris and Pence exchanged barbs. Throughout the 90-minute showdown, Pence (and at times Harris) blatantly ignored the rules, going over the allotted time and refusing to cede to Page. Page did little to actually enforce the rules, mostly just attempting to stop the candidates from speaking by thanking them. At other times, Page would ask a smart question, only to watch it totally ignored by the candidate who spoke about another subject entirely. Instead of putting her foot down and mandating the candidate actually address her questions, Page allowed for the topic to be hijacked."

"One might be able to forgive Chris Wallace to some extent, given the unenviable task he had trying to corral a belligerent Trump," Darcy wrote. "But frankly, it was inexcusable that Page did not come better prepared to enforce the agreed upon rules -- especially given how last week's debate went off the rails."

At the same time, Page received some praise from journalists for her framing of questions. "She asked very good questions," Wolf Blitzer said on CNN after the debate.

Page's point of view

Page, the Washington bureau chief for USA Today, had not moderated a presidential debate before.

"This was a new experience for me," she said on "New Day" Thursday morning. "It was quite the night and quite the honor to participate in that debate."

When anchor John Berman asked about her Pence's avoidance of her questions, Page said, "What I usually do are interviews or news conferences. This was a different kind of forum. In those cases, I think I would have been pretty aggressive at trying to follow up, to press him on the question I asked. In this case, I was really there to just help voters get some illumination about these candidates."

"And when they answered the questions I asked, I thought that was illuminating," she added. "And when they refused to answer the questions, I thought that was also illuminating."

Gaslighting?

"At times," Maeve Reston and Stephen Collinson wrote in an early edition of their CNN.com story Wednesday night, "it seemed as if the vice president did not realize who he had been working with over the last four years," a/k/a "a serial liar."

Pence twice challenged Harris by repeating the famous Daniel Patrick Moynihan line that "you are entitled to your own opinion but you are not entitled to your own facts." It was as if Pence was trying to tarnish Harris, and by extension Biden, with the same "liar" reputation as Trump, making it seem like everyone is equal. As Garry Kasparov once said: "If you're a thief, accuse your enemies of thievery. If corrupt, accuse your rivals of corruption. If a coward, accuse others of cowardice. Evidence is irrelevant; the goal is to dilute the truth and the case against you with 'everyone does it.'"

"A collection of words without any substance"

Brian Lowry wrote: "Both candidates were at times evasive, pivoting to discuss the issue they wanted to discuss rather than answering the question, and Page seemed to give up on pressing them. Yet if Harris dodged occasionally, Pence did so constantly, to the point where the answers -- for all their studied folksiness -- often sounded like a collection of words without any substance."

"Speaking of substance, or the lack thereof," Lowry added, "the irony is that the most memorable moment for many will be the fly that landed on Pence's head, and stayed there for a time, evoking Twitter comparisons to everything from the science-fiction classic and its remake to the bad guy in 'Raiders of the Lost Ark,' who powered through a scene with a fly on his face."

Top reactions

-- Regarding the fly, CNN's Michael Smerconish said: "Oh no. I fear that is all people will remember about this debate."

-- Gayle King on CBS: "They were talking about systemic racism -- I think it's very interesting timing that a fly would land on Mike Pence's head at that particular time when he said that there really wasn't systemic racism. You saw the fly basically going like 'Say what?'"

-- CNN's Abby Philli said the Harris approach was about "holding her own," playing it safe, "not creating social media moments."

-- Along the same lines, Jake Tapper added, Pence was more aggressive and "did more oppo-dumping," a reflection of the fact that the Trump-Pence campaign is behind.

-- Politico's Tim Alberta: "If this debate could move fewer than zero votes, it would."

-- Cook Political Report's Amy Walter: "Biggest impact of this debate? Each campaign will use their candidates very packaged talking points, chop them up, put them in social media posts. It will make their partisans happy. Maybe raise some $$. That's it."

-- Jamie Weinstein: "No one will remember this debate even happened by noon tomorrow."

-- James Carville on MSNBC: "I viewed this as the first debate of the 2024 cycle."

Production notes

-- Linsey Davis on ABC: "Fortunately this was more about policy than it was about personality."

-- Harris did the same thing Biden did last week -- looking straight to camera for key moments. Pence barely tried it.

-- Per CNN's team, Pence spoke for 36 minutes and 27 seconds and Harris spoke for 36 minutes and 24 seconds.

-- Norah O'Donnell on CBS: "Our team was following it very closely," and found that Pence interrupted Harris "twice as often" as she interrupted him.

-- Gloria Borger on CNN: "Did you notice the smile that was on her face all the time? And that's hard when you're getting interrupted constantly."

-- The MSNBC panel blasted Pence. Joy Reid said his defenses of Trump seemed tepid. Niccole Wallace: "He just looked limp and lame." She added: "The fly moved him. He didn't move the fly."

-- Karl Rove on Fox: "I don't think this is going to change the direction of the debate. But I do believe it gives a template to the Trump campaign if they were paying attention..."

"Susan"

Kerry Flynn wrote: "I think it's great to acknowledge people when you're speaking to them, look them in the eye, say their name. But the number of times Pence said 'Susan' was uncomfortable. When someone uses my name that often, I believe they're either being condescending or trying to get my sympathy without deserving it. If Pence really respected Susan Page, he wouldn't have just said her name. He would have just answered her questions."

A version of this article first appeared in the "Reliable Sources" newsletter. You can sign up for free right here.