Words, Words, Words

Jim Lehrer has assembled a nice retrospective on televised presidential debates and on his experience as a moderator. Lehrer, anchor of PBS NewsHour and moderator of eleven presidential debates, is pleanty familiar with the subject matter and presents it with the same level-headed coolness that comes across in his televised persona. Lehrer conjures up the controversies and game changers-"major moments" in his own terminology-but discusses the human factors over the political rhetoric. Through personal anecdotes and interviews with the participants Lehrer gives the personal side of the story, a story of three men in the most public forum with the highest stakes "walking down the blade of a knife" where anything from tone of voice to body language can change the face of everything. Tension City reads quick and stays on point, Lehrer is not hear to make judgements but to fill out the story. I recommend it for just about anyone.