Verdict? Though I hate to say it, I was a bit disappointed in Edwards' performance. It wasn't bad by any means-- nowhere near as bad as Bush's in debate 1, but I think I expected him to get up there and outshine Cheney with his courtroom debate skills and southern charm. In actuality, I tend to agree with this guy Chris Matthews of MSNBC Hardball:
"I think the analogy would be a water pistol against a machine gun. Every
once in a while, Edwards would take a squirt at the vice president, and then the
vice president would just turn the Howitzer on the guy."
There were a few points where Edwards got him-- Cheney never really successfully refuted arguments about his lack of support for sanctions on Iran, or his ultra-conservative voting record:
"When he (Cheney) was one of 435 members of the United States House, he was one of 10 to vote against Head Start, one of four to vote against banning plastic
weapons that can pass through metal detectors. He voted against the
Department of Education. He voted against funding for Meals on Wheels for
seniors. He voted against a holiday for Martin Luther King. He voted
against a resolution calling for the release of Nelson Mandela in South Africa,"
(awful stuff!) for example.
But on the other hand, Cheney made Edwards sound like he was in the wrong ballpark, several times-- his inaccurate figures on the budget for Iraq, his attendance record at the Senate (ouch, that one really hurt!), and the Kerry-Edwards flip-flop on Iraq after Howard Dean was running the primaries on an anti-war campaign.
I don't think it will undo Kerry's win from the previous debate, and perhaps my expectations for Edwards were just very high. For his first national debate, he was not by any means shabby. But I guess for Dick, 12 more years of "wisdom" and a few heart attacks can give a guy some punch.
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