Veep-off
: I’m now in a room watching the debate with Micah Sifry, Scott Kurnit, Dan Gillmor, Mitch Kapor, Zack Rosen, and other lumiaries. I think I’ll enjoy the peanut gallery more than the action on stage. (Out of 600 people here, 25 are watching the debate.)
While I’m on insubstantial issues, I can already see that sitting is better than standing. I want sitting debates.
: Cheney repeats what both candidates said the other night: that our biggest threat is a terrorist having a nuke. I’m not sure I buy that. And i sure hope I’m not right.
: Edwards sure comes out shooting: “Mr. Vice President, you are still not being straight with the American people.” The rules said there were to be no opening statements. Ha!
Now I understand why politicians go to law school. Nothing about making laws. Everything about rhetorical attack.
: Paul Bremer gave Edwards his straight line yesterday, saying there weren’t enough troops.
And Cheney is on the defensive.
: Edwards, too, gets Saddam and bin Laden confused. It’s catching.
: When Cheney says Edwards has his facts wrong and he has not connected Iraq to 9/11, this room breaks out in a guffaw.
: Cheney says we are four days away from a democratic election in Afghanistan. Let’s not forget that, my friends. That is progress in the world.
Too bad Iraq ain’t Afghanistan, eh?
Edwards won’t allow that to be good news. “They are now providing 75 percent of the world’s opium.” I say that’s a mistake to find the dark center to every cloud. At least celebrate the spread of democracy, guys. That’s the vision I expect from both administrations.
: Edwards spins the “global test” quote. He says they will go over terrorists and they “will never give veto power” to another country. I’ll wager that Bush will step up the global test advertising. I smell the coming of French cheese-eating surrender monkeys.
The moderator says she’s going to come back to the global test and Edward says “yes, ma’am.” Polite southerners.
She asks: “What is a global test if it’s not a global veto.”
Right question. This is the most upsetting single thing about Kerry to me. The French f’ed us along with Old Europe and we cannot depend on these alleged allies. It is very much the right question.
He says these nations need to trust us, that we are credible. “They will not follow us without that.” They won’t follow us anyway. They’ve said they will not go into Iraq. That dog don’t hunt truffles.
: Cheney makes a big mistake answering Edwards, going after challenging facts (“the 90 percent figure is dead wrong”). No, he should be speaking in a French accent.
: Cheney says that Edwards and Kerry “voted against the troops.” That was his first contact blow.
: CNN is leaving up the Chyron for many, many minutes: “Would it be dangerous to elect Kerry President?” What the hell is wrong?
: At :27, we have the first Halliburton mention. Micah Sifry follows the rules of the drinking game: Down goes the merlot.
: Good for you Gwen: She pushes the question of whether the efforts to internatinalize the effort in Iraq are “naive” given that the French and Germans have told us to F off.
Edwards: “We have a plan for success.”
Bullshit meets bullshit.
: Wonkette almost live blogs:
8:58PM: They have just completed the essay portion of the debate. 9:10PM: Cheney: “I have never said there was a connection between Iraq and al Qaeda.” Yes! And watch these monkeys fly out of my ass!”
: Edwards’ eyebrows. That’s what it’s all about: Edwards’ eyebrows. When Kerry hit Bush, his lips got thin and he lost. When Cheney tries to attack Edwards, he raises his eyebrows: ‘What the F?’ it says.
: Edwards is the prosecutor. Cheney is the witness. Hostile witness. If it keeps going like this, he’ll be playing the role of the defendant.
Cheney gets wrapped up in specifics and doesn’t give the big-picture view Edwards is giving.
: Edwards could go overboard: Cheney, Haliburton, Ken Lay, and Enron in the same sentence. and Edwards is the definition of smug.
Cheney pushes FactCheck.com. Server immediately hammered.
And let’s factcheck the factcheck.com reference. It’s actually factcheck.org.
It’s a veeplanche!
: Cheney, president of the Senate, goes on an odd attack, saying that Kerry doesn’t come to work often enough. “The first time I met you was on stage tonight.”
: Edwards is getting cocky. With reason.
: I come to think that Kerry chose Edwards only to defeat Cheney at this debate.
: Amazing that Cheney acts as if he’s talking to the moderator while Edwards knows he’s talking to the nation.
: UPDATE: Aftewards, I asked the room their score. I thought Edwards won. Micah Sifry thought it was a draw. The room voted more for draw. Some for Edwards. None for Cheney.
