Little Effect.

Here are some quick notes on the debate w/o me having seen any commentary so far:

This last Debate should produce little effect. that may not be true but it shouldn't do much. no one hit it out of the park. if you like a little rougher edged attack, you Dick Cheney did it. If you like a more 'above the fray' style attack then John Edwards did it. neither hit a home run or anywhere near it.

Let's stop for a second and just say that the moderator was the WORST in the history of the Pres/VP debates. badly worded questions, bad management of the debate, just bad.

now that i got that out of the way, you have cheney who slouched over the whole time. i kept having to look at the top of his head. he seemed calm and deliberate but only a few times really did he seem to have the upper hand. he's a deliberate speaker but with both these guys, it seemed they'd mostly be pleasing to the folks that liked them already.

I have to say Edwards was somewhat disappointing. while he did seem to have that charm he's famous for, he also screwed up his words a few too many times. not badly but we expect more from him. His answers could, at times wander all over the place and land anywhere but on point with the question. of course he wasn't the only one and the moderator had some god awful questions.

I really did not enjoy this debate. no fireworks. i don't expect it to have much of an impact unless the post-debate spinmasters see something i didn't. the problem is that they only have 2 days until the presidential candidates go at it again so that spin would be lost.

I got a little tired of having better answers in my head than Edwards had in his mouth. this is me being critical, but because i'm slightly annoyed. i just felt like he was trying to bunt the softballs that went his way.

I say there was no head and shoulders winner out of Edwards, Cheney, or the audience. you want a winner? i think you could really only go where ever you were leaning anyway. we'll see if anyone else agrees.

you Know what? i give it to Cheney. he was better prepared and Edwards was all over the place. i got tired of Edward having to go bac to the previous questions to try and clean it up. not good. he didn't seem BAD but he was all over. Edwards gave a MUCH better closing statement but here's the thing. no matter if you HATE cheney's views...he's certain about them and he put it out there well.

That being said...Cheney had a better control over the direction of the debate. to me Edwards seemed a little more canned. i give it to Cheney but not by much. 55 to 45. none the less...i don't expect it to be a problem.

Final thought: the edwards of tonite could not have pulled off the job kerry did last week (and i've been a LONGTiME edwards supporter).