Reactions and analysis to Tuesday's vice presidential debate
Cheney's whopper (Joe Trippi)
My quick take on last night?s debate in Cleveland was that John Edwards won the Q&A portion of the debate on points, and that Dick Cheney won the closing argument on points. All well and good, a push of sorts.
But is anyone going to say what really happened ? and do it without giggling?
Dick Cheney was on a mission to pull the wool over voters? eyes. Edwards ?has got his facts wrong,? he claimed. ?I have not suggested there?s a connection between Iraq and 9/11.?
HELLO?
Everyone reporting on this race knew that Dick Cheney had just told a whopper. But nearly no one called him on it. Chris Mathews did not let it pass ? he would not let Ben Ginsberg off the hook late last night on the Cheney whopper. But most others that brought it up on the air or in print did so with a chuckle and a ?pols will be pols? attitude condoning the vice president?s incredible ability to say just about anything with a straight face.
The debate started last night with John Edwards charging that the Bush/Cheney administration had failed to tell the American people the truth. Dick Cheney last night proved John Edwards case for him, with distortions, half-truths, and finally with a bold-faced lie.
That should be the coverage. It was obvious who was playing fast and loose with the truth and it was Dick Cheney.
I call em like I see' em ? I hate more than anything politics as usual and last night it was the Vice President of the United States somehow winning a debate according to a lot of the experts, experts who gave him a pass on a lie. I guess I have to go to some special ?fair and balanced? school to watch John Edwards say repeatedly that Dick Cheney isn?t leveling with the American people, then watch as Dick Cheney tells a whopper of a lie on national television, and still call the debate a push or give it on points to the guy that told the best whopper and got away with it.
On points, it?s a push for Cheney, I would say.
And of course when it came to the truth, well? let?s just say that Cheney is in a league of his own.
Morning after at the scorer's table (Keith Olbermann)
A major truth foul has been declared against Vice President Dick Cheney, and his narrow victory over John Edwards in last night's Light Heavyweight Debate has been overturned by the Boxing Commission scoring the bout (me).
While rounds were scored even and Edwards was ahead on points at its conclusion, Cheney had been awarded the contest on the intangibles and the overall impact? largely because of a memorable phrase that underpinned his left-right combination that nailed Edwards in the solar plexus of his inexperience and the breadbasket of his alleged prioritizing of electioneering instead of Senatorial work: "In my capacity as vice president, I am the president of Senate, the presiding officer. I'm up in the Senate most Tuesdays when they're in session. The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight."
But Cheney and Edwards have met at least twice, once inside the Senate. Who did the Vice President know, and when did he know him?Within an hour of the last of the 21 rounds, a "freeze frame" from a C-SPAN telecast of Senator Edwards and Vice President Cheney at a 2001 Prayer Breakfast was being circulated around the internet.
And by morning, the Kerry-Edwards campaign had produced irrefutable evidence that when Elizabeth Dole was sworn in by Senate President Cheney as the junior senator from North Carolina just last year, it was Senator Edwards who (with her husband) escorted her to Mr. Cheney. Senator Dole was sworn in using Mrs. Edwards' bible.
The only way Cheney could have avoided meeting Edwards was if he'd had an attack of tunnel vision, or cauliflower ear.
"The first time I ever met you" was the cornerstone of post-fight analysis and Cheney's goal of making viewers dismiss Edwards. It's now been turned around on the vice president and accompanying spin doctors. The prospect of this outcome was forecast in last night's original scoring of this bout. This reporter expects a day of heavy piling on by Democratic spinners, with great success.
The Boxing Commission (me) thus penalizes Fighter Cheney 10 points for untruthfulness, 10 points for forgetting his acquaintances, 2 points for snideness, and 2 points for hitting himself with his own jab. Republican spin doctors are penalized 10 points each for premature jocularity. This fight is awarded to Fighter Edwards on points.
The Boxing Commission will reconvene here Friday night for Bush-Kerry II, the Kablooey in St. Louie.
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