Martha Raddatz, senior foreign affairs correspondent for ABC News, was lauded for her performance as moderator of the first and only vice presidential debate in the 2012 election, primarily for coming off as having control over the flow and command of the content during the debate — a particular point the previous moderator, Jim Lehrer, was lambasted for.

The New York Times' Andrew Rosenthal blogged "In praise of Martha Raddatz," crediting her with not asking "puffy questions" or letting candidates get away with "vague answers" as he says Jim Lehrer did while presiding over the first presidential debate between President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

Could it be that Raddatz learned from the storm of insults served on Lehrer? Newsday gives her a pat on the back for pushing the vice presidential candidates in follow up questions to be more precise in their answers and give more details  on their policy stances. For example, listen she gets to bottom of the one fundamental difference between the opposing campaign proposals on withdrawal from Afghanistan.

But there were observers and supporters who got annoyed at Biden and felt Raddatz allowed him to interrupt Ryan too often.