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 . The first lady has been criticized by some Republicans who say she is too cozy with President Obama, but others have praised her for being tough enough to stand up to him in debates. Jim Lehrer , moderator of last week 's presidential debate , got low marks for his performance .