A "debate" without gotcha's

I quibble with the use of the term "debate," as it wasn't much of a debate, but I liked the Iowa Public Television Democratic Debate better than any of the other media-driven debates I've watched this campaign season. It was clear the moderator, Carolyn Washburn, the editor of the DesMoines Register, was interested in getting the candidates to display their wares, as it were, and was not trying to create controversy for the sake of controversy. I thought she asked some good questions about some of the candidates' pasts.

Let's get the TV media folks out of their self-assumed role of campaign debate moderators, and let's put trained print news gatherers and producers in charge. I'm sure we would learn more about the candidates that way.

I might add that what I'd most like to see is a one hour interview with each candidate, with a good interviewer such as C-SPAN's Brian Lamb.