Wednesday, October 06, 2004

Ahh, another political debate. It was definitely not Lincoln and Douglas up there on that Ohio stage, but it was definitely "more" than the presidential debate. It was "more" because it just felt exhausting after it was over. These two came armed with numbers, statistics, trends, "facts" and a whole host of other elements that most of the nation probably could not verify, so it felt like seeing New York City for the first time for someone who was born in Nebraska. My thoughts on the two: Edwards: I thought he was on the ropes for the first half hour. He stuck to "talking points" that were echoes of Kerry's remarks in his debate. Whereas Kerry-Bush spoke about themes and general concepts, Edwards eventually expanded on those ideas with specifics. The one statement by Edwards that I thought was pretty vicious was his introduction of Cheney's daughter into the discussion. While it was under the guise of a compliment, I think Edwards actually talked about Cheney's gay daughter to show his flip-flop on the issue of banning gay marriage, an issue that Cheney's does not believe should be constitutionally banned (or at least hasn't said that) while Bush supports it. Edwards excelled in his domestic agenda arguments. Cheney: Performed extremely well also but, the fact, that he did well and Bush did not might say something about how the administration is currently run. But, then again, people give too much consideration to these debates and outward appearances and not enough to the policies. Cheney was succinct and very crotchety but he was effective in highlighting the inexperience of Edwards. Cheney excelled in the foreign policy arguments. One other thing that I thought was funny was Cheney's reference to factcheck.org. I used the site way before he mentioned it, but as soon as he referenced it, I couldn't get on it for a day because the server was too busy. I finally get through, and I find that factcheck has deconstructed most of what Cheney said during the debate. Before he talks about a site called factcheck he should check his own facts. This debate had an undercurrent of animosity, which represents this entire contest and it will be interesting to see what happens in the next few weeks and also how the next two debates play out. And, Lieber vs. Radke? Game 2 goes to the Yanks.