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Welcome to Backyard Blog, our group online journal for this election season. We've asked a broad array of people with deep ties to the region to share their views on politics during the 2004 campaign.
Send your comments to bbcomments@seattletimes.com. |
October 06, 2004
| Cheney shredding machine |
| Posted by William Thomas Mari at 10:50 AM |
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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| Post game show |
| Posted by Garrett Ryan Ferencz at 09:01 AM |
“We need a grumpy and mean vice president ... I think 55 million Americans probably want a grumpy and mean vice president.”
--Weekly Standard publisher Bill Kristol commenting on last night’s debate
As Michael Moretsky commented in his blog from the far reaches of New Jersey, it was hard to find that many people who actually watched the debate last night (though I was informed on several occasions that the Twins beat the Yankees during last night’s major league playoff action 1-0).
However, as I rode in this morning on Metro’s 255 across the floating bridge, conversation erupted among four passengers in front of me. I could not believe it, they were talking about the debate—actually debating the debate—it was so exciting, and my eaves-dropping so apparent that soon enough I was drawn in to the conversation.
To the person, they were amazed at how much more mature and capable Cheney seemed at running the country; that Edwards was too much flash, too young to really do the job if he had to.
It seems that recent attempts to demonize the Vice President may have worked in lowering expectations going into the debate. At hearing the “Cheney praise” my Republican heart began to soar (yes we do have hearts) though seconds later my dreams of a Cheney lead comeback vanished.
Several of my fellow 255 riders also felt that a political novice is preferable to a capable leader going in a perceived wrong direction. So in the end, maybe the debate had little impact. Yet one thing is for sure, substance prevailed over good hair and form. Score this one for the Bush/Cheney team.
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| The veep debate |
| Posted by Jay Porter at 08:56 AM |
If Kerry and Edwards win, we can return to a time when policy is debated on the basis of fact, not the basis of ideology.
When I was, in my childhood, a good Young Republican, I remember how we decried the ideological purity of our enemies. Now, we hear that same kind of factless prose from both members of the GOP ticket.
The Politburo at its zenith was never as unified around message as the Bush- Cheney campaign. It shows, because whatever the question the Republicans
inevitably veer back towards their safe messages.
Tonight was proof of this, again, for me. While Edwards marshalled fact, Cheney held on to one discredited talking point after another and served those with sneers and chuckles. His favorite intro: "Gwen, I hardly know where to start." He also has no idea where to stop, especially when he' s parroting his favorite line of argument, slyly suggesting that Saddam Hussein attacked America on 9/11. Edwards shut him down every time--something our media sadly failed to do in the march to war.
I will say that Cheney, for all his flaws, would have been a far better president than George Bush. Granted, I may feel this way only because I was an English major and invariably prefer a man who can speak in complete sentences. This debate showed again that the two tickets are fundamentally unmatched--but Cheney comes much closer to matching Edwards than Bush could ever match Kerry.
As someone denied the right to marry, the moment where Cheney thanked Edwards for honoring Cheney's commitment to his lesbian daughter was moving. Cheney said he supported the president's right to set policy, but refused to defend it further. It was painful, and a reminder of the pain that so many families face as a result of Bush's commitment to sacrificing the full humanity of gays and lesbians to the most extreme faction of the Republican right. It was interesting to see Mary Cheney on stage after the debate-- she was barely allowed on camera during the GOP convention.
This campaign is all about what is allowed on camera, and who is allowed to speak. While the GOP ticket requires a loyalty oath to enter campaign events, Kerry and Edwards are speaking on front porches across America. The President's disconnect from reality should be even more apparent than usual when he faces the "town hall" crowd on Friday.
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