Crush All Boxes!

A more detailed look at the transcript will follow in the next few days, but just some general impressions about the VP debate for now.

All of these debates are about persuading non-base voters. Who persuaded more leaners or created more leaners? I'd guess that this was close to a tie, but the edge was Edwards'. Cheney is a very tough debater, especially since he has no compunction about lying extravagantly; his 'baffle 'em with yards and wads and gallons of bullshit' technique is very effective on the moment. But Edwards didn't yield much, and I think he capitalized on the opening Kerry created last week; if you were leaning against Bush coming in, you still are, probably more so. For the people who have doubts about Bush but still aren't sure about Kerry, who knows how they reacted to this debate? Could go either way. Net advantage Edwards.

On substance it was no contest at all (terribly naive of me to bring up actual substance; guess I'm just a sap!). The Bush Cheney record is one of patent failure. There are plenty of people in the blogosphere annotating Cheney's distortions and lies as we speak, so I won't go into them here. Edwards held his own and, I suspect, gained ground with people who think there is something fishy about Bush/Cheney. Edwards made a career taking on corporate bald-faced liars like Cheney. Would that the electorate was more like a jury!

# posted by jonnybutter @ 9:22 AM