Ciao!

"I'm president of the senate, I preside over sessions. The first time we met was tonight."

>> I'm nominating this line as the best debate "zinger" to date. I heard people all over the U.S. leaning back into their couches and recliners saying, "Damn!" or "OOOOohhh!" or "Aw, snap!"

I didn't think Edwards performed that badly, however, particularly considering the political experience his opponant brought to the table. I'm not disappointed. I'm not ready to say that he lost the debate, either.

But[.] Cheney's zinger should win the zinger prize.

If people argued the debate Bush - Kerry was boring, then I do not know what they say about this one. This one was not a bit informative, it was just finger pointing "you do this wrong" "you do that wrong". I lost focus on it soon after.

Didn't like Edwards' interrupting (didn't like Bush's irritation either), didn't like Cheney's coldness. Sometimes he seemed to stoic. Especially on gay marriage. I got the feeling he was saying "I do not like the stance Bush puts forwards, but he's the president, I am the running mate, so I support it." Not a good debate. Can't tell you who won, but am inclined to agree with you that it was Cheney, not on contents, but simply on how he handled the debate.

What's zinger, Tom? Anyway, it's amazing that it looks like we watched the same debate (you can see my outsider comments on my site). Basically, I also think Cheney won big time and with all of your comments. Now that's amazing, isn't it? N.

I saw the debate completely different (thank god for CNN). I am not a huge fan of Kerry and at times, I have to yell at the TV, "are you *trying* to lose this thing?"

Edwards, on the other hand, clearly spelled out where the Bush administration went wrong. Iraq and Afghanistan are not these hugely successful situations that the Bush admin wants us to believe. If we would have let the inspectors a bit more time to find out what we know now, then we would not have lost 1000 U.S. lives and countless Iraqi lives. There was no link between Saddam and 9/11. The Bush administration lost sight of who actually attacked us and let the warlords find OBL.

Cheney was awful, he seemed grumpy and annoyed that *anyone* would dare question him.

I am definitely voting for Kerry, because of Edwards..instead of before, voting for Kerry because he is not Bush.

Well, I saw the debate on ABC (the Kerry/Bush one on NBC). And while I appreciate that you liked the content of what Edwards said, I think his style lost him the debate in my eyes.

As for the Iraq & al Qaeda thing. I think both campaigns are talking past each other, and I fault the GOP for not better selling the idea. The Dems see this as a war on al Qaeda, not a war on terror (in a broader sense). The issue's not so much that Iraq had some shady connections to al Qaeda & 9/11 specifically, but that it had ties to other terrorist groups. To me, this isn't a war against ONE terrorist group; it's a war against the use of terror & states that sponsor them. An analogy would be to declare war on crime but get mad when someone focuses on criminals other than Al Capone.