Some of the questions that many viewers said they considered irrelevant when measured against the faltering economy or the Iraq war, like why Senator Barack Obama did not wear an American flag pin on his lapel, the incendiary comments of Obama's former pastor, or Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's assertion that she had to duck sniper fire in Bosnia more than a decade ago. The questions from the moderators were considered to be focused on campaign gaffes and training most of their ammunition on Obama, to which Stephanopoulos responded by saying that "Senator Obama the front-runner" and the questions were "not inappropriate or irrelevant at all."