The Art of Politics

The Woodshed

A snappy, spunky Edwards still can't avoid a trip out back...

The spin cycle begins anew after the VP debate, this time spinning in the opposite direction.

Vice President Cheney and Senator John Edwards both lived up to expectations of their personas - the dry, sharp paternalism of Cheney, the puckish pluck of Edwards. But substantively, Cheney drew the sharpest distinctions and delivered the sharpest blows.

Cheney was very effective where President Bush wasn't - exploiting John Kerry's policy incoherence on Iraq. Taking Kerry and Edwards both to task repeatedly for contrasting statements on Iraq, Cheney and his bad ticker did the heavy lifting in drawing the constrast between the candidates in sharp relief - that Kerry has not demonstrated the consistency needed to fight the war on terror. Edwards repeated protestations to the contrary almost feed into this - the louder they spoke of honor, the faster we counted our spoons.

Unfortunately for Edwards, he has little coherent ammunition to work with - while he can decry what has happened in Iraq, he can't point to anything other than platitudes and rhetorical niceties as an alternative to the Bush administrations handling.

Weaker still is the reliance of Kerry/Edwards on the wrong war line of thinking - Edwards retorted to Cheney that we were attacked, but not by Saddam Hussein. Cheney draws no distinction between terrorists in the war on terror, but Edwards and Kerry increasingly disconnect any terrorist activity in Iraq from the US fight against Al Qaeda. It's as if Saddam used the old jedi mind trick on Kerry/Edwards - these aren't the terrorists you're looking for...

Edwards is far more effective talking about health care premiums and domestic issues, where Cheney is far more disinterested and it shows in his language and style. Edwards regains lost ground, but this is against Cheney's prevent defense after the score is well out of reach.

One of the more effective lines in the debate was Cheney's chiding of Edwards' attendance in the Senate - stating that despite his being at the Senate weekly, the first time they'd met was on the stage this evening. After the debate, Edwards' wife mentioned to Cheney that they had indeed met before, at a breakfast some three years earlier, and Edwards sheepishly brought this out in post-debate remarks to supporters. The problem is, Edwards didn't counter Cheney during the debate because even he couldn't recall such a meeting to counter with...

The sharpest exchanges of the evening came over Iraq, and Cheney really hung Edwards out to dry for not including the sacrifices of Iraqi security personnel when considering the costs of the war. While this position may be a little nuanced for the general electorate - and face it, Americans are more concerned about American casualties than Iraqi - it was one of those points that Edwards really cannot counter. Cheney also scored by noting twice that talking tough during a campaign doesn't provide cover for Kerry's Senate record - finally bringing this issue into play.

The initiative shifts back to the GOP ticket, at least until the outcome of Friday's debate is known...

Posted by MEC2 at October 5, 2004 11:32 PM