"I would argue that my questions were right down the middle. There were some hardball questions for each candidate. There were some softball questions for each candidate. But for the most part they were just terrific."

The bias complaint, said Lehrer, was more of a commentary on his critics than a valid criticism of his own debate performance.

Still, some observers noted that Lehrer's questions focused largely on negative aspects of Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq – while avoiding Sen. Kerry's waffling on the issue, not to mention the top Democrat's long record of opposing measures to strengthen U.S. intelligence and national security.

At one point Lehrer claimed that over 10,000 U.S. soldiers had been killed in Iraq, before quickly revising that number to 1,052.

At the end of the debate, the PBS anchorman shook Sen. Kerry's hand – with some debate watchers claiming he gave the top Democrat a knowing wink.

In 1999, the president of Lehrer's network had to resign after admitting that 53 PBS affiliates had been sharing their donor lists with the Democratic National Committee for years.

In 1997, then-White House aide George Stephanopoulos revealed that President Clinton's re-election team thought it was a major coup when Lehrer was chosen to host one of the presidential debates, boasting that "our moderator" had been picked.

Editor's note: