Bob Schieffer, in Denver this week for CBS’s coverage of the Democratic National Convention, talks about this year’s election, his upcoming role as a presidential debate moderator, and his future as moderator of Face the Nation. He spoke with TVNewser for the mediabistro.com feature So What Do You Do?:
• Comparing the 2008 presidential election to those past (he’s covered every one since 1972), Schieffer calls this year’s contest “the most exciting one of all.”
• He is “truly honored” to moderate the October 15 John McCain-Barack Obama debate (he hosted in 2004, too). “What is so good this time is that the format is designed to produce real debates. The program will be divided into eight ten-minute segments. I’ll be moderating the debate on foreign policy and I will open each segment with a question on some specific topic…and then it will be my job to get them to respond directly to the question and to each other.”
• After deciding to postpone his retirement by signing a long-term deal with CBS, Schieffer says he may step aside from his moderator role on Face. “There’s no fixed date,” he says. “That may be sometime next year, or it may be sometime the year after that.”