Master debaters

The CNN analysts seemed to agree that the vice-presidential debate was a draw, but to me it seemed like John Edwards really fumbled the ball, and may have given up a lot of the ground Kerry gained last week. He seemed discombobulated through most of it, kept repeating himself and the moderator, and missed chance after chance to call Cheney on his baldfaced lies. Cheney landed many direct hits on the voting record (and absences) of Edwards and Kerry, and Edwards did practically nothing to defend it, instead trying to attack back on barely-related subjects that made it look like he was trying to change the subject. Cheney and Bush (and the rest of the Republican noise machine) keep getting away with saying Kerry voted for the war and that he voted against supporting the troops, both of which are total lies that have sunk really deep into the public consciousness. Kerry almost managed to clear up the first one, but the biggest disappointment of the first debate was that he didn't nail it shut, and instead shot himself in the foot about the second one with the lame quip "I made a mistake in how I talk about the war. But the president made a mistake in invading Iraq. Which is worse?" Edwards tried to explain the vote against the $87 billion by bringing up Halliburton, which might have seemed like a good idea but ended up being a weak distraction that was easily deflected by Cheney. (Although I'm amused that when intending to mention factcheck_org Cheney mentioned factcheck.com instead, which now points to George Soros. Thanks to jadelennox for pointing out that LiveJournal feed, by the way.)

Also, I thought Gwen Ifill did a pretty poor job of moderating. A lot of the questions seemed redundant, and she was granting the 1-minute "discussion extension" way too often when they had nothing more to say about the topic, so they either repeated themselves or talked about something completely different. And the rule about not saying Kerry's name was silly, and it ended up really hurting Edwards when he broke the rule not once, but twice, making him look like he couldn't follow simple directions. Jim Lehrer did a much better job of relevant follow-up questions, and clarifying their answers, but Ifill let them get away with (for example) totally ignoring her question about AIDS among black women in America, instead both talking exclusively about other countries.

Maybe I've been watching too much of the Al Franken show lately (and listening last night, 1200/1430AM in Boston!), but it just seems like there is so much opportunity for Kerry and Edwards to simultaneously defend their record and really call Bush and Cheney on their crap and they're doing neither. I hope Kerry can realize this and really take the gloves off in the next debate, but I'm not holding my breath.

Freedom means freedom for everybody

One more thing: it's appalling that Edwards seemed further to the right than Cheney by saying (twice) "I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman", and it's ironic that when the question was about Kerry and Edwards "having it both ways" about gay marriage, Cheney did exactly that by saying that he disagrees with Bush about the FMA but he supports him anyway.