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Obama's Stephanie Cutter knocks Lehrer

DENVER, Colo. -- Obama spokesperson Stephanie Cutter took a swipe at moderator Jim Lehrer's largely passive debate performance tonight, saying the PBS anchor had allowed Mitt Romney to act as the moderator.

"I sometimes wondered if we even needed a moderator because we had Mitt Romney," Cutter told CNN shortly after the debate, though she told POLITICO that Lehrer did his job as moderator and that her comments were strictly about Romney.

(See also: Complete coverage of the Colorado presidential debate)

Cutter's decision to knock Lehrer may signal an acknowledgment by the Obama campaign that the president did not perform as well as his challenger, Mitt Romney -- which was the general consensus of the media, including the usually pro-Obama MSNBC. (MSNBC hosts Chris Matthews and Ed Schultz slammed Obama's performance.)

Many on the left criticized Lehrer for being too silent. He rarely interrupted the candidates when they went over their allotted time, and when he did it was almost always a losting battle. His attempts to control the conversation were so notably nonconfrontational that they became memorialized in a Twitter handle named @SilentJimLehrer.

But Lehrer's passivity also allowed the two candidates to engage one another, and if Obama did not engage Romney or land any singificant blows, he may have no one to blame but himself. Though it is the moderator's responsibility to keep time and keep the candidates on topic, it was up to the president -- not the moderator -- to take on his challenger.

(Also on POLITICO: Lehrer: The master of moderation)

Nevertheless, reaction to Lehrer's passivity on Twitter was largely negative, ranging from the constructive to the cruel. "Moderator Jim Lehrer perhaps too laid back tonite," Lynn Sweet, the Washington bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times, wrote. "Jim Lehrer may be the worst moderator in the history of moderation," conservative columnist John Podhoretz wrote.

UPDATE (9:47 p.m.): Cutter emails:

"Jim Lehrer absolutely did his job as a moderator, as only Jim Lehrer can do. But Mitt Romney wanted to play by his own rules, and that came across loud and clear."

UPDATE (10:21 p.m.): Romney spokesperson: 'You've lost debate when you start blaming the moderator'

This post and its title have been updated.