Although most commentary I saw immediately following the debate seemed to favor a draw; bloggers and "journalists" put their own spin on things and favored the candidate that they probably already support. I am one of those spinners. I spin, but not because I really favor one candidate over the other, but because I want to see who does better, then base my decision on who to vote for partly on these debates. Kerry won round one by a huge margin, but this time around, I have to admit that I saw a very slight margin of victory for Vice President Cheney. Here is why.
Both candidates dodged their share of questions. When asked about job loss and job creation, and how poorly this administrtation has done to protect jobs, Cheney went off on a two minute tangent on education and the no child left behind bill. Edwards called him on it, and we still didn't get an answer. Next Edwards was asked how he and Kerry planned to get France and Germany on board to help fight the wrong war at the wrong place in the wrong time, and become part of the coalition of the coerced and bribed, when both countries have been very adament that they will not support our troops in Iraq regardless of who is elected president. Edwards responded with 2 minutes of job creation bashing and poor funding of education rhetoric.
This is the debate I wanted to see last Thursday between Bush and Kerry. Although Edwards was strong and energetic and made several great points, it was mostly more of the same that we already heard from Senator Kerry last week. Meanwhile, Cheney let loose with the ammunition that Bush left stockpiled for him from last week. Instead of stuttering and stammering like Bush, Cheney defended the Iraq war, right or wrong, with real evidence and facts (not "hard work"). Second, he nailed the truth about the Israeli-Palestine situation saying the reason there are less suicide bombers is partly because Saddam Hussein isn't around to fund them and their families the $25,000 anymore. And third, he drove home the Kerry/Edwards strange (to say the least) voting record. Cheney mention that as Vice-President, part of his responsibilities of the last 3 and a half years is to be the presiding head of the senate, and to oversee voting and discussions and what not, and the first time he "met [Senator Edwards] was tonight on this stage." BAM! That's the kind of thing I was looking for from Bush. True or not, it was good debating
These two guys took the gloves off for an hour and a half, and let the punches fly, and when the smoke cleared, Edwards (in my opinion) had a few more cuts on his face than Cheney.
An important issue to me is this "coalition" debate, and I will discuss it further in an upcoming post, but for now, I'll sign off with this:
GO TWINS!!!!!
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1 comment:
Boy what a personal debate! I couldn't help myself and watched most of it while flipping back to the Twins. Edwards held his own against the old man. All Edwards needed to do was debate to a draw. Interestingly a Fox news poll says that Edwards won the debate and ABC has Cheney the victor. I saw a draw myself. The BS comment by Cheney that he hadn't met Edwards is a lie. Yes, he goes up to the hill every Tuesday, but he only meets with the Republicans. He never said there was a link between 9/11 and Iraq? Give me a break. Another lie. I saw the interview he said it! Chris Matthews on Hardball went after Ed Gillespie (Rep. strategist) with this info pretty hard. I felt sorry for old Ed for a couple seconds. Edwards also stretched the truth. I'm not saying that both sides don't stretch the truth to fit their versions of issues. But the vice flat out lies about many things. Not half truths and stretching, LIES. Period.
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