The Cheney-Edwards debate was everything the first Bush-Kerry debate wasn’t: a dramatic contest of opposites full of sharp one-liners, hostile exchanges, and embarrassing slip-ups.
While Vice Presidential debates don’t traditionally have a great effect on the outcome of elections, Tuesday’s debate was important in that it was the American people’s first good look at John Edwards-their only chance before the election to decide if he’s fit to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency. The younger, less experienced Edwards therefore went into the debate with the most to prove, while Vice President Dick Cheney was charged with the task of reversing the momentum John Kerry had gained over the weekend.
The evening could roughly be divided into two sections: the first half of the debate dealt with Iraq and foreign policy, while domestic issues were the subject of the second half. Cheney bulldozed through the foreign policy section of the debate, defending the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan more convincingly than the President himself, while simultaneously attacking both Edwards’s and Kerry’s records on national defense. Cheney also delivered the most memorable zinger of the night, asking, “If John Kerry isn’t strong enough to stand up to Howard Dean, how can he be strong enough to stand up to Al Qaeda?”
When the questions shifted to domestic policy issues, Edwards found himself at an advantage. Whereas Cheney made a point of attacking Edwards’s Senate record, when Edwards turned the tables and listed Cheney’s damning history, including votes against the creation of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and against a resolution supporting Nelson Mandela, the Vice President was left with nothing to say in his defense. Edwards also successfully skewered the Republicans on the unemployment rate and deficit. When asked about same-sex marriage, Cheney failed to articulate why he feels it’s necessary to turn what has traditionally been a state issue into a federal concern.
Rebounding from his weak first half, Edwards was charismatic and articulate in the second. Though Cheney came across better than some Republicans must have feared, next to Edwards he seemed drained. Some of his responses, including an indecipherable rant on the rising costs of health care, surely had Americans flipping to the Yankees game. Though Edwards’s victory here was no larger than Cheney’s on foreign policy, it is arguably more important. Undecided voters have already heard the party leaders debate national security, but this was the first one on domestic issues.
Still, it’s a national security election, and barring any major developments on the homefront, foreign policy concerns trump all others. In that regard alone, Cheney won the debate.
