The debate moderators have been named, and they could have been a lot worse.

Lester Holt, Anchor, NBC Nightly News
Monday, September 26, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York
Vice presidential debate:
Elaine Quijano, Correspondent, CBS News
Tuesday, October 4, Longwood University, Farmville, Virginia
Second presidential debate:
Martha Raddatz, Chief Global Affairs Correspondent and Co-Anchor of “This Week,” ABC and Anderson Cooper, Anchor, CNN
Sunday, October 9, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri
Third presidential debate:
Chris Wallace, Anchor, Fox News Sunday
Wednesday, October 19, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Perhaps the most pleasant surprise is Wallace – the first debate moderator ever selected from Fox News — who has demonstrated he asks tough questions of every guest on his Sunday show. Already the usual suspects are complaining that Wallace shouldn’t be allowed because Fox News is a “propaganda outlet.” Suddenly everyone forgets the fact that Wallace and his co-moderators hit every Republican candidate with tough questions in the primary debates.

Some folks are casting Anderson Cooper as just another left-of-center news anchor, but it’s worth recalling his first question to Hillary Clinton in one of this year’s primary debates: “Even some Democrats believe you changed your positions based on political expediency. You were against same-sex marriage, now you are for it. You defended President Obama’s immigration policy; now you say they are too harsh. You supported his trade deal dozens of times, you even called it the gold standard, suddenly last week you’re against it. Will you say anything to get elected?”

There’s no guarantee that Cooper will take the same tone in October. And you never know when a moderator will go completely off the rails, as Candy Crowley did, insisting that President Obama had specifically labeled the Benghazi attack on September 11, 2012 an act of “terrorism” when he had not. We’ll see if any of these moderators feel the need to intervene and shut down a Republican line of criticism this cycle as well.