Tuesday, October 05, 2004
VP Debate Thoughts
Not too coherent right now. I'm back and forth on this one and wonder if I need to sleep on it to come to a verdict.
1.) Cheney didn't keep his cool as well as Edwards did. At points he got plain nasty and it showed.
2.) Edwards did not bring new arguments to the Iraq debate. He used Kerry's lines and Cheney had ready rebuttals. He connected on the basic question of administration credibility, but he did miss an opportunity to nail Cheney. Still, the basic point he made holds - the daily news does not lead one to believe the administration
3.) Edwards played his closing like a lawyer addressing the jury box and it worked wonderfully - a nice focused solemnity to it.
4.) At some point in the debate Cheney seemed spent and couldn't summon up his earlier sarcasm. Edwards too seemed to tone it down a bit. This occurred just after the midway point
5.) CBS news polled undecideds who found for Edwards 41-29. That's good news. Those are the people who needed to be reached.
6.) ABC found for Cheney across all voters by 43-35. The problem is that they oversampled Republicans and undersampled Democrats - recalibrating that actually puts Edwards ahead.
7.) Still, Edwards needed new points on Iraq and terror and he needed to quote Cheney's claims of an Iraq-Al Qaeda link. He missed a chance to really hold Cheney to the fire, and moreover to nail him on some of his more recent statements.
8.) Some good points were scored off of Cheney on the resume side - both the Halliburton issue and some of the more bizarre votes he's made on MLK Day, plastic handguns etc.
Bottom line - Edwards probably did better with the people he needed to influence. He did not score as many minor points as Cheney, but he kept an even keel and stayed on message. The CBS poll found women more susceptible to him - and widening the gender gap is a priority for the Kerry/Edwards campaign. I doubt this will impact the election much. At worst it's a draw; at best a slight win for Edwards. Given Cheney's policy expertise, my hopes of tearing him a new one may have been too lofty. This debate won't change the race much, but it won't worsen things.
Not too coherent right now. I'm back and forth on this one and wonder if I need to sleep on it to come to a verdict.
1.) Cheney didn't keep his cool as well as Edwards did. At points he got plain nasty and it showed.
2.) Edwards did not bring new arguments to the Iraq debate. He used Kerry's lines and Cheney had ready rebuttals. He connected on the basic question of administration credibility, but he did miss an opportunity to nail Cheney. Still, the basic point he made holds - the daily news does not lead one to believe the administration
3.) Edwards played his closing like a lawyer addressing the jury box and it worked wonderfully - a nice focused solemnity to it.
4.) At some point in the debate Cheney seemed spent and couldn't summon up his earlier sarcasm. Edwards too seemed to tone it down a bit. This occurred just after the midway point
5.) CBS news polled undecideds who found for Edwards 41-29. That's good news. Those are the people who needed to be reached.
6.) ABC found for Cheney across all voters by 43-35. The problem is that they oversampled Republicans and undersampled Democrats - recalibrating that actually puts Edwards ahead.
7.) Still, Edwards needed new points on Iraq and terror and he needed to quote Cheney's claims of an Iraq-Al Qaeda link. He missed a chance to really hold Cheney to the fire, and moreover to nail him on some of his more recent statements.
8.) Some good points were scored off of Cheney on the resume side - both the Halliburton issue and some of the more bizarre votes he's made on MLK Day, plastic handguns etc.
Bottom line - Edwards probably did better with the people he needed to influence. He did not score as many minor points as Cheney, but he kept an even keel and stayed on message. The CBS poll found women more susceptible to him - and widening the gender gap is a priority for the Kerry/Edwards campaign. I doubt this will impact the election much. At worst it's a draw; at best a slight win for Edwards. Given Cheney's policy expertise, my hopes of tearing him a new one may have been too lofty. This debate won't change the race much, but it won't worsen things.
