Well, I’ve now received dozens and dozens of emails and no one agrees with me. Many are offensive; most are just bewildered. Here are two of the more cogent:
I don’t know Andrew. As a registered Democrat here in Ohio, I agreed with you on the outcome of the first debate, but I thought Vice President Cheney mopped up tonight. I missed the roadkill that you apparently saw. I saw the common harbinger to roadkill; a deer in the headlights. That deer in the headlights was Senator Edwards. I don’t think this debate will matter much in the end, but it was clear to me that Edwards was destroyed. Is it too late to get Dick Gephardt on the ticket?
Then this one:
What debate were you watching? Cheney destroyed Edwards/Kerry on foreign policy, helped I must say by Gwen Ifill’s questions about Kerry’s “global test” and pie in the sky plan to convince Chirac to send troops to Iraq. When Cheney hammered at Kerry’s senate record and twists and turns, Edwards could say nothing except that Kerry had stood strong in a debate last week. This set up the body slam that a 90 minute debate can’t make up for a bad 20 year senate record! The first 45 minutes of the debate created a great platform for the rest of the week — focus on Kerry’s senate record. Apparently Bush will give a speech on Kerry’s record tomorrow. What will Kerry/Edwards talk about?? Haliburton?
Money Quote: “If you can’t stand up to Howard Dean, how can you stand up to Al Qaeda!”
The second 45 minutes was more diffuse. I must say that the questions were not conducive to a good debate. The first question was about “poverty,” and not jobs or growth. There was no general question about health care. I felt sorry for Edwards who kept trying to shoe-horn health care answers into questions on legal reform, etc. Nor was there any general question about education, leaving Cheney to talk about it under the heading of poverty and Edwards to talk about it 15 minutes later. Two ships, a luxury liner and a speedboat, were passing in the night.
Obviously, I’m as bewildered as you are by this response. I’m in a tiny minority. But I wrote what I thought I saw. Can’t do anything else. Some of this – most of it, actually – has to be subjective. I should repeat: I expected Cheney to win easily. Maybe that prejudiced me. But I see little doubt that Edwards came off as by far the more appealing, persuasive and eloquent figure. No, it won’t matter much. But I’ll stick with my assessment.
WHEN CHENEY MET EDWARDS: Here’s a pic.
The Dish 