Just like in Chess, Cheney with the white pieces had a HUGE advantage

[nine30]

Thats true folks. Cheney got the first move and that biased the whole debate in Cheney's favor, this is not to say Cheney won. He didn't but thats another issue.

In the first 2 min Cheney took jabs at Kerry and Edwards had to spend precious seconds out of his only 90 sec reply being forced to defend himself. And then Cheney would attack again...

All Cheney did for most of the debate was sit next to Edwards grinding his teeth and snarling as if to say "How did they let this piece of sh*t even SIT next to me". He uttered the same lies (Iraq was the right thing to do..)to which I think Edwards should have been more dramatic with the counter attack. Edwards should have said something like "Mr Vice P. are you honestly telling us all even after all we know now that Iraq was the right thing to do ? <pause for effect>

Though in substance Edwards was the clear winner I just don't think he was agressive enough. He smiled too much which took the sharpness out of his attacks.

[union_maid]

1. That's not how I saw it

Cheney would land a blow...you'd think, "Oh, shit, that was bad." and then Edwards would come back and just jab the hell out of him. Every time. With a smile. That's how he won his cases.

[bloom]

2. It pissed me off when Edwards wanted a 30 sec. reply

near the beginning and she wouldn't let him have it.

And then later she keeps asking Cheney if he wants a 30 response. :wtf:

[0rganism]

3. Edwards won a huge victory through demeanor alone

You point it out yourself.

Cheney: grinding his teeth and snarling and lying

Edwards: defending his record with a smile and poking holes in Cheney's credibility

You'll notice, too, that Edwards stumped Cheney outright on some issues -- gay marriage, for example, Cheney barely said anything in rebuttal. Edwards probably could have been more agressive, but I think he chose not to do so. In two or three days, most of the specifics are going to fade away from the public eye. After all, it's only a VP debate, right? What people are left with, then, are their overall impressions and a few key moments.

Debates like this have to be aligned for long-term memory.

[Awsi Dooger]

4. Funny, I saw it just the opposite

On so many questions I was relieved Edwards had the benefit of the rotation, the last word. Particularly on Halliburton, where Cheney basically fumbled his 30 second reply with "can't cover everything in 30 seconds" then Edwards nailed him with a rerun of "these are the facts." I sensed Cheney was pissed off at that point and never recovered.