George,

The Cheney-Edwards was a good debate, I thought. There were spirited exchanges and harsh questions posed to both candidates.

From the substance standpoint, Cheney clearly won the debate. From the charm standpoint, Edwards won the debate.

Personally, I preferred Cheney's dry style to Edwards' theatrics. Cheney's style could turn off a lot of voters, though. He gave too many facts sometimes - too many facts for the average voter to absorb. Edwards kept his message simple - sometimes too simple it was obvious he was just repeating what he's practiced in his prep sessions. But voters remember simple more easily, which is why Kerry, until learning how to speak in one-clause sentences, had a disadvantage in connecting to average people.

Cheney had clearly won the debate in my mind and I came away very impressed with Dick Cheney and his seasoned experience. He'd almost convinced me that the Iraq War was the right thing to do with his dry style.

Until, that is, the following day.

Cheney made one major mistake during the debate when he said that he hadn't met Senator Edwards until the night of the debate. You knew as soon as those words came out of his mouth Democrats would be scrambling to find phtos and videos of the two together, and they did, at a prayer breakfast back in February 2001. Edwards' wife even gave Cheney the bible he used to swear in Senator Dole. Now I can understand if Cheney can't remember meeting every Senator he doesn't deal with on a daily basis, especially if that senator is from the opposition party. But Cheney's claim that he hadn't met Edwards prior to the debate was not true. This means that he either lied or simply forgot. I'm assuming Cheney just forgot. But even in forgetting meeting Edwards, Cheney gave a bad impression of himself - that he doesn't remember people whom he considers unimportant, and that doesn't play well with voters. It makes people think, "this guy doesn't care about average people."

While I consider Dick Cheney a very intelligent and shrewd man, it's probably good for him that he has no political aspirations, because the ability to connect with voters on a personal level.

If Cheney hadn't stated that had never met Edwards before Tuesday night, he would have been the clear winner of the debate in my mind. But the fact that this statement statement turned out to be untrue has made me question the veracity of of the Vice-president's statements, simply because he was wrong about something he seemed so sure of. I still respect Dick Cheney enormously for his intelligence and experience. Yet, I lost some of that respect simply because of one statement. During the debate, I was thinking, "Hey this guy's for real!" But after hearing that he was wrong about never having met Edwards, I was thinking to myself, "Cheney's not too trustworthy."

The Democrats did a good job of bringing the Vice-President's error to public attention, and that can only help the Democrats, at least in the short run.

Joseph Cheek (electronic mail, October 7, 2004)