Washington ( CNN ) -- At times it seemed as if Martha Raddatz , who moderated Thursday 's vice presidential debate , was the third debater . At other times she was the seasoned ABC News war correspondent who kept the two guys in suits taking snarky swipes at each other in line . She pressed the candidates to give firm answers , such as when Vice President Joe Biden said Republican challenger Rep. Paul Ryan was just saying `` a bunch of stuff . '' `` What does that mean , ' a bunch of stuff ? ' '' Raddatz asked Biden . Raddatz also pressed for specifics such as when she demanded of Ryan : `` I want to know how you do the math and have this increase in defense spending ? '' Five things we learned from the VP debate . When she wanted to direct the foreign policy debate to a new topic , she commanded : `` Let 's move to Iran . '' And to Iran the conversation moved . She forced the candidates to do a bit of self reflection when she asked : `` are you embarrassed by the tone of this election ? '' If her trending status on Twitter was an indication , Raddatz schooled the two candidates -- hard news reporter style -- and won accolades from journalistic colleagues in the process . As veteran PBS journalist Charlie Rose tweeted : `` Everyone seems to agree that @ martharaddatz is the star of this debate . '' His network colleague , Jim Lehrer , host of `` PBS NewsHour , '' was widely criticized last week and skewered by late night comedy shows after serving as moderator of the presidential debate . Raddatz netted a different reaction . 25 funniest tweets about the debate . `` Our perspective : There were two winners tonight . Martha Raddatz ... and the American viewer ! Great # VPdebate , y'all , '' liberal publication Mother Jones â€ .
Martha Raddatz won kudos as moderator of the vice presidential debate . She scored a fan following on Twitter and criticism from conservatives for her performance . Fellow journalists gave Raddatz a thumbs up for tough questioning . Jim Lehrer , moderator of last week 's presidential debate , got low marks for his performance .