VP Debate Thoughts

I have to honest here. I was rather disappointed with this debate. Both Cheney and Edwards unleashed some pretty sharp attacks right out of the gate during the foreign affairs section of the debate. In the end, I think they more or less balanced each other out, but occasionally I found Cheney's attacks slightly stronger than Edwards'. All in all though, both men seemed to have their pre-determined themes and pretty much stuck to those -- even when Gwen Ifill's question seemed to be attempts to steer them in other directions. This is the reason I think the debate largely turned out to be a dud.

One of the more interesting points of the debate was Gwen Ifill's attempt to illicit some opinions on the subject of gay marriage. I'm not sure I've ever seen Cheney so uncomfortable with a question. Unfortunately, I think Ifill's questions on this topic were just a waste of time, and she should have realized this given Cheney's recent statements that more or less put him in line with John Edwards. The domestic policy questions didn't help matters much as both Cheney and Edwards consistently used half of their answers to respond to previous statements by the other or to simply talk about an unrelated topic. One thing that really annoyed me was Cheney's repeated assertion, "where to begin," at the beginning of his responses to Edwards statements. However, Edwards occasional decision to talk about things completely unrelated to the questions asked didn't sit much better with me.

As I said, the debate largely turned out to be a dud, and I think it will probably go down as a tie. But, if either side gains as a result of this evening's debates, I think it will most likely be Bush/Cheney, as Cheney's attacks seemed occasionally to stick more. In the end, it was certainly not a great debate, and will probably not have a very drastic effect on the electorate.