Concluding Unscientific Postscript

The available spin for cheap television viewers like me is over. Here are my thoughts, with no attempt to be unbiased, or unfiltered--I've been looking at what I can find on the internet (and voting in all the available polls), as well as watching the first round of spin.

First, I was glad to see PBS take my point below and make it one of the themes (the Kennedy/Nixon analogy). Ha. Michael Beschloss double dipped, showing up on both ABC and PBS. Don't know if he said the same thing at both places, but he's definitely trying to make the public TV/commercial TV crossover.

Didn't know that Cheney lied WHEN he lied, but it looks like the line-of-the-night for him becomes, by default, a dud. Bensten was at least smart enough to make his killer line unassailable (because it was a personal judgement). Cheney opted for the cheap and easily refuted falsehood--then again, imagine that.

Cheney looked old--that's gonna haunt him...wait, the way Cheney looked, I don't know if there's ANYTHING that could haunt him. On the other hand...

So Cheney locks up the zombie and vampire vote this evening. Ann Coulter, this bloc of voter's high priestess, will no doubt call it a smashing victory for him.

However, Cheney's remarks on AIDS were appalling. Anyone who's seen the human side of the AIDS crisis--and that's a LOT of people--can only shake their head. The guy's response is to talk about the hit it causes to the economy? "Basically you end up with a country of kids and old people, while you have a deficit of people in condition for prime economic output" or words to that effect? Jeez. He looked like an ogre.

Bob Schieffer, oddly enough, seemed to almost take a weird, Rutger Hauer-in-Blade-Runner approach to his commentary. Maybe it's because he's getting on in years(just like Dan Rather). He gave Edwards very high marks. He played up the Iraq issue, focusing on the very real fact that life and death actually matters to the electorate. In the end, Schieffer chose life.

Oh--did you notice Cheney couldn't resist beginning his first answer to a DOMESTIC question with a 9/11 reference. Damn. He really DOESN'T have a soul...

Edwards held his own--and, using the Rove test (TV with the sound down--ok, I didn't actually TURN the sound down, but I'm sitting watching the repeat on C-Span, while working on this)--anyway, using the Rove test, Edwards LOOKS a hell of a lot better than Cheney. He held his own on the same stage as Mr. Grave-itas (Mr. Abu Graib-itas--nah...as we all saw, there was NO mention of Abu Ghraib AND both candidates refused to adopt a balanced approach to the Israel/Palestine crisis). His foreign policy responses were sensible and had the added benefit of being appropriate for a VICE president, unlike Cheney, who doesn't seem to know that he's NOT the president. Edwards blew Cheney away on domestic issues. And, Cheney lied. If he lies in a debate, how can you trust him on anything?