Candidates change, but Jim Lehrer remains at debate helm

ShareThis

While the candidates spend Friday afternoon rehearsing one-liners for this year's first presidential debate, moderator Jim Lehrer will be flipping through a stack of ties.Every debate since the 1996 contest between Bob Dole and Bill Clinton in Hartford, Conn., Lehrer has purchased a new tie in the city hosting candidates on the day of the debate."When something works you don't ever want to change it," Lehrer said.This year one of his daughters is in charge of staking out an Oxford, Miss. store, though the details haven't yet been sorted out, he said.Levity aside, Lehrer, 74, knows the stakes of a presidential debate and doesn't take the responsibility lightly."The pressure is terrific on me, but think what it's like for the candidates," he said. "Fortunately I've done enough of them now (that) I know what the pressure is like. And it's huge."This is important stuff. This isn't a television show. This is an event in a process that's going to result in who's going to be the next president of the United States, and I know that."Lehrer, who is best known as host of the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS, has moderated 10 of the nationally- televised debates in the past five presidential elections. He says he has fully recovered from a heart-valve procedure in April.Friday's debate between John McCain and Barack Obama will cover foreign policy and national security issues.Lehrer will neither discuss the questions he plans to ask nor the performance of previous candidates. He will only say that voters should expect informed questions about topics that matter."Keep in mind these are the only times throughout the whole entire presidential campaign where the candidates actually speak about the same subject on the same stage at the same time," he said.Viewers can learn about a candidate by not only the ideas he shares but by his emotions and body language."I mean, it is a full-court exercise," Lehrer added. "The impact of these things can be enormous.X ... X ... XJim LehrerBorn: 1934, Wichita, KansasHe and his wife, Kate, have been married since 1960. They have three daughters and six grandchildren.Career Highlights:From 1959 to 1966, Lehrer worked as a reporter for The Dallas Morning News and then the Dallas Times-Herald. He served as a political columnist at the Times-Herald and, in 1968, was promoted to city editor.Lehrer first worked for public television while in Dallas, though he eventually moved to Washington, D.C. to serve as the public affairs coordinator for PBS.In 1973 Lehrer and Robert MacNeil provided live coverage of the Senate Watergate hearings for the National Public Affairs Center for Television.In 1975 Lehrer worked as the Washington correspondent on the half-hour program, the Robert MacNeil Report. The following year the show was renamed The MacNeil/Lehrer Report. And in 1983 the show became the hour-long program, The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour.Lehrer has written 17 novels, two memoirs and three plays.Accolades:In 1999, President Clinton awarded Lehrer the National Humanities Medal. He was also inducted into the Television Hall of Fame the same year.Lehrer has won two Emmys, the Fred Friendly First Amendment Award, the George Foster Peabody Broadcast Award and numerous others for journalism excellence.(Contact Kristina Goetz of The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn., at goetz(at)commercialappeal.com.)