Moderator Jokes About Sparring

NEW YORK — The loneliest figure at Tuesday’s vice-presidential debate had to be the moderator, Hal Bruno of ABC News, who did single-handedly what a four-person panel did at Sunday’s presidential debate.

As the debate quickly produced heated sparring between the candidates, Bruno dryly observed: “I was a little worried that there might not be a free-flowing discussion.”

Although Bruno might not have been familiar to some television viewers, he was not without experience in political debates. He was a panelist in the 1976 vice-presidential debate between Republican Bob Dole and Democrat Walter F. Mondale, and moderated a Democratic primary debate in New Hampshire last November.