( CNN ) -- The moderator for Thursday night 's vice presidential debate is Martha Raddatz , senior foreign affairs correspondent for ABC News since 2008 . According to her ABCNews.go.com biography , Raddatz was ABC 's White House correspondent during the George W. Bush administration , after serving as senior national security correspondent and State Department correspondent . She has traveled widely , including 21 trips to Iraq and multiple visits to Pakistan and Afghanistan . She has flown in an F-15 fighter jet over Afghanistan twice . Before joining ABC , Raddatz was NPR 's Pentagon correspondent for five years , during which time she made numerous trips to Europe covering the war in the former Yugoslavia . Complete coverage : Presidential debates . In a separate profile on the site , Raddatz said moderating a debate may be scarier than going into a combat zone , `` because you do n't wear body armor '' at a debate . Raddatz has won four Emmy awards , the 2012 First Amendment Award from the Radio Television Digital News Foundation , the 2007 International Urbino Press Award , the 2005 Daniel Pearl Award from the Chicago Journalists Association , and an Overseas Press Club Award for coverage of the 1995 assassination of Israeli statesman Yitzhak Rabin . The White House Correspondents ' Association gave Raddatz an award in 2007 for excellence in presidential news coverage under deadline pressure . What would you have asked ? Raddatz 's 2007 book , `` The Long Road Home -- a Story of War and Family , '' was a New York Times and Washington Post best-seller . You can follow Raddatz , 59 , ( @ martharaddatz ) on Twitter . She was raised by her mother in Salt Lake City after her father died when Raddatz was 2 years old , she told an interviewer from Centre College in Danville , Kentucky , site of Thursday 's debate . According to the website NNDB , she never completed college . The conservative blog Daily Caller raised a flag on Raddatz on Wednesday , saying President Obama , while still a student at Harvard Law , attended her wedding to Obama classmate Julius Genachowski , whom Obama later appointed to lead the Federal Communications Commission , according to Politico . The Drudge Report and other conservative outlets subsequently raised doubts about Raddatz 's objectivity . Photos : The Vice Presidential Debate . `` This is absurd , '' an ABC News spokesperson told Politico . `` Martha Raddatz is known for her tough , fair reporting , which is why it was no surprise to her colleagues inside and outside ABC News that she was chosen by the Commission on Presidential Debates for this assignment . `` Barack Obama was a law school classmate of Raddatz 's ex-husband Julius Genachowski at Harvard . At the time Barack Obama was a student and president of the Law Review . He attended their wedding over two decades ago along with nearly the entire Law Review , many of whom went on to successful careers including some in the Bush administration . Raddatz and Mr. Genachowski divorced in 1997 and both are now remarried . '' Where they stand : The candidates and issues . According to Contemporary Authors Online , Raddatz was born in Idaho and has also been married to Boston journalist Ben Bradlee Jr. , the son of the famous Washington Post managing editor . She had one child each with Bradlee and Genachowski . She currently is married to award-winning NPR correspondent Tom Gjelten . Raddatz broke up a White House press briefing in January 2007 when her cell phone suddenly started ringing loudly to the tune of `` Ridin ' '' by Chamillionaire . White House spokesman Tony Snow 's reaction -- `` Does Martha have a hip-hop ringtone ? '' -- prompted raucous laughter from her fellow journalists while she scrambled to silence the phone . `` Play that funky music , white girl , '' Snow cracked . Ryan 's debate prep as meticulous as he is . Moderator Lehrer knows the debate game .
Susan Raddatz is ABC 's senior foreign affairs correspondent . She 's visited Iraq 21 times and flew in an airplane over Afghanistan . Conservatives question her neutrality ; Obama is a friend of her family .