Despite criticism, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos defended his performance in last night’s Democratic debate, which he co-moderated with Charles Gibson.



“We asked tough but appropriate questions,” Stephanopoulos told me by phone this afternoon.



When I asked whether questions about flag pins or Bosnia are actually relevant to voters, he replied: “Absolutely.”



“The vote for the president,” Stephanopoulos said, “is one of the most personal” decisions that someone makes.



“When people make that choice, they take into account how candidates stand on the issues,” he said, but also are concerned with “experience, character [and] credibility.”



“You can’t find a presidential election where those issues didn’t come into play,” he said.



Stephanopoulos explained that since the candidates are not far apart policy-wise, the “core of the nomination fight” has been about these issues.



“They’ve been fighting it out on this turf,” he said, adding that these are things that “came up between this debate and the last one.”



This morning, websites like The Huffington Post provided multiple attacks on the debate moderators (The Gotcha Debate), and I asked Stephanopoulos for his reaction to one specific piece of criticism — that of Washington Post critic Tom Shales calling the moderator’s performances “shoddy” and “despicable.”



“I think it just comes with the territory,” Stephanopoulos replied, adding, “I think you’re going to find a wide range of opinions.”



“This is an election people are really engaged with,” he said. “They’ve participated. They’ve been watching it. They’re speaking their minds.”



And what about treatment of the candidates?



NBC’s Chuck Todd, for instance, noted that “in the first 40 minutes of the debate, most of the questions were focused on Obama's negatives.”



Did Stephanopoulos feel that the "Saturday Night Live" skit mocking how debate moderators have treated Obama was accurate, and that the Illinois senator has gotten off too easy in the past?



“I’m not going to comment on other peoples' debates,” he said.



Finally, on the repeated shots of Chelsea Clinton on screen — which Stephanopoulos wouldn’t have been responsible for since he was down asking the questions — the moderator said he hadn’t really thought about it.

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