I’m sorry, but Vice President Dick Cheney shredded Senator John Edwards last night during the vice-presidential debate in Cleveland, so much so that it wasn’t even funny (even though some of Edwards’ facial expressions were).
As I watched at home, I saw (and heard) the flushed face and tones of John Edwards as the Vice President pummeled him mercilessly. And I'm not the only one who thinks so. The MSNBC team watching the debate also got the very strong impression of a bona-fide Edwards stumping. The veteran Cheney firmly put the junior first-term senator in his place, clearly coming from the position of gravitas and experience.
I’ll admit that as a goofy young conservative, I (of course) have my own leanings as to which candidate won, and Edwards did have the guts to show up and answer tough questions. I wouldn’t want that job, but at the same time one expects the potential VP to be ready to fill the shoes of the president at a moments notice, and Edwards just didn’t strike me as having that ability.
Sure he looked good and talked easily (being a trial lawyer, that’s part of the deal), but he got squashed on substance. Cheney wasn’t an ogre, despite being described as “…mean and grouchy…” by Mary Beth Cahill, Kerry’s chief campaign manager, in an after-the-debate interview with Tom Brokaw. Is that all Kerry fans can say?
I’m going to go out on the political blogger limb here, and ask a question that echoes my “Voting for ... the First Lady” post from back in August: which of the two men, if you had a really, really, deep-down, in-your-gut, down-to-the-wire decision to make, would you want as president if the worst happened, and Mr. Bush or Mr. Kerry got incapacitated?
I know that I’ll probably get a whole bunch of responses for this, but do you want the “grandfather-in-chief” Cheney, or the trial-lawyer Edwards? Which one do you imagine as your “responsibly-grumpy” uncle or grandpa?
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