Tonight’s Vice Presidential Debate…
Just finished watching the debate, and it was most likely a draw. I felt that Vice President Cheney was on the offensive most of the time, while Edwards was counter-punching. Personally, I thought that Cheney won, but I admit my bias. He’s a hawk, but he’s a damned good debater.
To be fair, however, he counter-punched well.
That said… I don’t think there was one person in America who had their potential vote decided (or changed) tonight. Quite simply few people care about the Vice President’s office. We have not had a VP ascend to the oval office since Gerald Ford following Richard Nixon’s resignation. It is largely an invisible office, and their biggest moment in four years is pretty much what happened tonight… the VP debate leading up to the November elections.
The bleeding from the Bush defeat last week has been staunched. It is up to the President not to re-open the wound. Personally, I think the â??Town Hallâ? format of this week’s debate will lend itself a bit more to President’s style. ABC is already reporting (in the time that I have been writing this) that Cheney was considered the victor by a about a 10% margin over Sen. Edwards.
Early fact-check report is that the Kerry-Edwards insistence that the war in Iraq has cost $200 billion is simply not true. The Cheney number of $120 billion is accurate. Edwards insists that Cheney has in the past claimed a connection between Iraq and Al Queda, Cheney claimed a connection between Saddam and Mohammad Atta (one of the terrorists aboard plane on Sept 11). Oh well. Even with a little â??playing with the factsâ? on the Kerry-Edwards side, I still think that the results of the first two debates have been fairly clear. Kerry-Edwards - 1, Bush-Cheney - 1.
Looking forward to the next one.