I haven't bothered to go out and check the spin from tonight's debate, but I imagine most polls will call it a draw. Edwards was a lot less polished than I think most people were expecting, while Cheney was at his glib best, though it's hard to make an objective call on that conisdering the absolute disaster of a performance he had to follow.
The VP's biggest points were in the beginning, where he was able to sound solemn and learned even while blatantly lying about his own comments concerning Iraq and 9-11 and ducking the question about Iran. Edwards didn't do much beyond offer generalities, apparently hoping the "American people" he kept invoking would see through the Veep's blurring the 90% question by talking about Iraqi forces, especially when Edwards specifically said "coalition forces." Cheney scored biggest with his comment about how he'd never met Edwards before, which admittedly seems odd. I sympathize with Edwards, who got 30 to 90 seconds to wade through the VP's falsehoods and dubious statistics, but - to be fair - he let a lot of hanging curveballs float right by him.
The high point for Edwards was his response to Cheney's attack on his record, noting Congressman Cheney had opposed (among others) Head Start, the plastic gun ban, and Meals on Wheels, and Cheney didn't bother to respond. Edwards' closing statement was also much better: a message of hope for the future as opposed to more Administration scare-mongering.
Edge to Edwards, though not as decisive as Kerry.
UPDATE: Typical. Cheney apparently lied about never meeting Edwards too.
My initial impression after not watching the debate is that Libertarian vice presidential candidate Richard Campagna came out of nowhere and smacked those two around but good.
BTW, Cheney lies about most everything, from whether or not he went on a hunger strike in support of the Apartheid government in South Africa in 1984 (correct answer: yes) to whether he is currently 100% mecha (correct answer: also yes).
I think Cheney looks and sounds like a nasty, crabby, wrung-out old high school principal who's sick of dealing with kids, teachers and parents and just needs to retire. Edwards looks and sounds youthful, energetic, optimistic and serious but not too serious. Is this a shallow way of looking at the candidates? Maybe, but I think most Americans would agree that appearances are important.
I tink Edwards's inexperience can be held against him but it can also be seen as a plus. Americans are sick of old guard, business as usual politics. Edwards is a refreshing break from that. Cheney sounds and looks too "boys' club" and old school politician to generate much excitement. Yes, he has experience,
but his record is far from clean.
Bored ... bored ... bored ... lost interest ... bored ... heard it before ... comatose ... and ... bored. After the highly charged Kerry/Bush debate, this was far from the exciting VP-candidate-bashing event I thought it would be. While the presidential-candidate debate stayed fairly focused, I found the round about way in which the VP candidates answered questions, didn't answer questions, came back to questions, circled the wagons and answered not-even-asked questions to be a completely futile process. And what was with the format? I was watching ABC and the camera angles sucked and the moderator didn't seem to be able to keep the candidates on track. Use the buzzer dammit!! What was with the couple of shots of Edwards where he looked like he was a gigantic head about ready to swallow the tiny out of focus moderator as he spoke? It looked like one of those B SciFi movies where the giant lizard was about to eat the terrified caveman in the forefront. I would call the debate a draw if I could summon enough thought to care. Nothing really new was said except for the domestic issues, and I imagine we will hear a much more concise and polished version during the presidential candidate debates. At least from Kerry, that is. Squirm Bush Squirm!
"I think Cheney looks and sounds like a nasty, crabby, wrung-out old high school principal who's sick of dealing with kids"
More, I think, like the surly museum curator who dresses up like the Lock Ness Monster in order to drive down real estate prices on Scooby-Doo.
"It's Mr. Greedy!" "and I would have gotten away with it...."
Hey! He may be nasty and he may be crabby and he may be wrung-out, but.. uh.. what was that last thing you said?
I think Cheney's gruff, crusty exterior is just a facade. When you sit down and really get to know him, I bet the layers would be stripped away and you'd realize that deep down, Dick Cheney is simply a bastard.
I gotta day that my initial judgement gives the edge to Edwards, but just an edge. More than anything else, Edwards handled himself capably. That's all he really needed to do.
I have to give props to Darth Cheney for not throwing his daughter under the bus while still being supportive of his figurehead/boss.