Forwarding address
Senator Edwards will be behind the woodshed until further notice.
The contrast between the two debates is striking. John Edwards sounded exactly like John Kerry, and what worked for Kerry against George Bush was completely ineffective against Dick Cheney. Cheney knows policy detail like the back of his hand, and made that clear tonight.
Cheney's attacks were slick and devastating. While Bush simply repeated "he changes positions" for the better part of 90 minutes, Cheney showed there's more than one subject open for criticism, and gave details to back up his attacks.
I was tickled to hear Cheney explain the $87 billion "No" vote in the context of Howard Dean's ascent in the primaries. He brought up Edwards' S-corporation, and used it to rebut Edwards' criticism of rising Medicare costs. The "absentee Senator" attack was effective, as was his accusation that Kerry and Co. are denigrating our allies. Far more effective than Bush on the same argument.
I thought Edwards looked bad out of the gate when he repeated, verbatim, John Kerry's attack about number of deaths in Iraq (more in September than August, more in August than July...). Viewers immediately saw Cheney give an answer that was far more comprehensive than any of Bush's, and then got "Edwards the retread" to follow.
It's a little surprising that Oil-for-Food did not come up, though a friend mentioned today that Bush and Cheney are probably a bit restricted in bringing this up as it does affect current diplomacy with the nations involved. And Edwards was certainly not going to bring it up.
Overall, a very good performance by Cheney. I felt he was the clear winner on foreign policy, and it was a draw on domestic policy. Edwards got further with Halliburton than I thought he would, and I thought he was very effective parrying Cheney's malpractice arguments.
Perhaps the President was taking notes.
The contrast between the two debates is striking. John Edwards sounded exactly like John Kerry, and what worked for Kerry against George Bush was completely ineffective against Dick Cheney. Cheney knows policy detail like the back of his hand, and made that clear tonight.
Cheney's attacks were slick and devastating. While Bush simply repeated "he changes positions" for the better part of 90 minutes, Cheney showed there's more than one subject open for criticism, and gave details to back up his attacks.
I was tickled to hear Cheney explain the $87 billion "No" vote in the context of Howard Dean's ascent in the primaries. He brought up Edwards' S-corporation, and used it to rebut Edwards' criticism of rising Medicare costs. The "absentee Senator" attack was effective, as was his accusation that Kerry and Co. are denigrating our allies. Far more effective than Bush on the same argument.
I thought Edwards looked bad out of the gate when he repeated, verbatim, John Kerry's attack about number of deaths in Iraq (more in September than August, more in August than July...). Viewers immediately saw Cheney give an answer that was far more comprehensive than any of Bush's, and then got "Edwards the retread" to follow.
It's a little surprising that Oil-for-Food did not come up, though a friend mentioned today that Bush and Cheney are probably a bit restricted in bringing this up as it does affect current diplomacy with the nations involved. And Edwards was certainly not going to bring it up.
Overall, a very good performance by Cheney. I felt he was the clear winner on foreign policy, and it was a draw on domestic policy. Edwards got further with Halliburton than I thought he would, and I thought he was very effective parrying Cheney's malpractice arguments.
Perhaps the President was taking notes.
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