We had a bunch of knee jerker's last night saying Edwards lost

[trumad]

and now it seems they can't admit that they may have been wrong. So, as the dust has settled and the polls are in, have they changed their minds or are they going to continue enabling the other side?

[Borgnine]

1. I can understand where they were coming from...

...even though they were completely wrong. To the uninformed viewer, Cheney's lies carried a lot of weight. Yes, it was clear he was just a bullshitting lying bastard, and I'm glad our "crackerjack" news media is actually doing its job somewhat in calling him out, but if you didn't know any better, it looked like Cheney was moping the floor with Edwards early.

What was that meme the freeptards were trying to push last Friday? That Kerry was "all style and no substance?" That about sums up the Dark Lord's performance pretty well last night.

[H2O Man]

2. Good post!

I was pleased when my republican brother-in-law, who watched the debate in my living room, said that Edwards won the debate, and that it convined him to try to convince more republicans to vote for Kerry-Edwards. Also, my very conservative (but not republican) brother from the west coast e-mailed me that Edwards' presentation was all the more powerful because Cheney was a tough opponent. So it's not just democrats that were favorably impressed with Edwards: republicans and independents across the country felt John Edwards had won the debate in a big way.

[terrya]

3. Cheney was smooth. But a liar is still a liar.

[liberalmuse]

4. If Cheney won...

...he won. I can understand why some would think he did. The man is formidable and smooth, even while lying his ass off. Even if I thought for a second Cheney was telling the truth, I still would have gone for Edwards. Cheney did not connect. He was boring. Arrogant. Long winded about stuff I did not give one damn about. WTF was he talking about? I don't think a lot of Americans really cared what Cheney was talking about except when he blatantly started in with the PNAC doctrine.

When Edwards spoke, I wanted to hear what he had to say, and he spoke to ME. He came across as charming. Even when he made a flub (mentioning Kerry's name when he wasn't supposed to, which was really a stupid rule on the moderator's part), he came across as charming and focused on what he wanted to say, not on his faux paus. Edwards won, and after reading about the debate in print, Edwards actually comes off as being better than he was.