It's rare that a vice presidential debate actually commands attention. Tuesday's debate did more. The vice presidential showdown was better than the first presidential debate, and there are good reasons why.
This debate, unlike countless before it, held Americans - left, right and indifferent - captive for its relative duration. With any luck, this implies a heightened curiosity in presidential politics. Hopefully, the vice presidential debates will continue with such flair into the future.
There's a reason people felt engaged Tuesday night - Sen. John Edwards and Vice President Dick Cheney gave us larger policy plans outside of Iraq. For the first time in the debates, we heard the official stances on health care, gay rights and AIDS relief. There is more at stake in the election than just an Iraq exit strategy, and audiences got an earful of it from both men Tuesday night.
The capacity Cheney and Edwards displayed in countering each other's arguments was nothing but impressive. Cheney diverted Edwards' criticism of his involvement with Halliburton by pointing out Edwards' scant attendance in the Senate. Edwards fought back, recalling that Cheney voted against a federal holiday to honor Martin Luther King Jr. and against the release of Nelson Mandela from his South African prison.
Seen as bad form by some, Edwards turn in discussing Cheney's lesbian daughter in context of the proposed federal ban on same-sex marriage was done in a respectful - albeit cautious - manner.
By extrapolating on the themes of the first presidential debate, both Cheney and Edwards enriched each of their running mates' platforms. America knows better now what to expect once they choose one candidate or the other - thanks largely to their lively debate.
Mixed in with the significant, however, were some debate blunders. If anything, the character assassination chess match went overboard. Cheney and Edwards both opted to spend time answering old questions. Often, they repeated what they'd just said nearly verbatim, which contributed to the slightly lagging pace and focus in the debate's last half-hour. Without a doubt, witnessing their strain or lack of focus in the last part was worth the discourse in the first hour.
Both came armed to the teeth with statistics and numbers. Over-attention to numbers, statistics and methods of punching holes in Edwards' Senate record cost Cheney dearly when he gave a flimsy and unconvincing platform on the spread of AIDS in America.
If the candidates' appearance wasn't terribly influential, like conventional wisdom will say about the vice presidential debates, the candidates' candor and presence was. The passion Cheney and Edwards brought to the table and the level of intelligent discussion made this a vice presidential debate to remember. Limiting these two to their single matchup is nothing short of disappointing, given their direct, forthright tenacity - an element missing from last Thursday's presidential debate.
Cheney and Edwards presented themselves as two fundamentally different men running two fundamentally different campaigns for fundamentally different presidential hopefuls. If only Friday will be as entertaining.
