So how fair was it?
Posted: Thursday, June 28, 2007 10:39 PM by Mark Murray
From NBC's Lauren Appelbaum
At the beginning of the debate, Gravel called it the fairest one so far. Unlike previous debates where the front-runners received more questions than the rest of the candidates, in this debate each candidate got to answer every question. But the format may not have allowed for the most amount of total candidate on air time. There were a total of only eight questions.
We kept track of how much time each candidate held the stage, and neither Clinton, Obama, nor Edwards spoke the most amount of time -- that honor went to Richardson, who was the only candidate to speak for more than eight minutes. Obama was next, with Dodd and Clinton following. At the beginning of the debate, Dodd looked like he would receive the crown for longest speaker, but after Smiley chastised him, Dodd kept his answers to the time limit.
The rest of the candidates spoke for less than seven minutes. Although the format should have allowed for each candidate to speak for a similar amount of time, Gravel spoke the least, barely over six minutes, and Kucinich spoke for less than 6 1/2 minutes.
Here's our rough count of the time for each candidate:
Richardson 8:15
Obama 7:42
Dodd 7:25
Clinton 7:20
Biden 6:58
Edwards 6:36
Kucinich 6:29
Gravel 6:08
