A few debate notes

After the match-up between John-Boy and Mr. PermaSnarl, Fox commentators tended to call it a draw, while Chris Matthews and his gaggle of fellow shouters insisted that the veep had snarled his way to victory. For once, I'm glad that Fox drew more viewers.

Matthews loved the "first time I've met you" line. Senator Patrick Leahy soon put Matthews in his place by noting that Cheney had met only with Republicans on the Hill, never with Democrats. As we now know, Cheney and Edwards have met (and were even photographed together) on several occasions -- and Cheney has not been traveling up to the Hill every Tuesday.

Even so, Edwards missed an opportunity. He could have said: "Mr. Vice President, you should have just stopped by my chair to say hello. You could even have said something less pleasant -- as you've been known to do on the Senate floor."

I feel Edwards performed rather well, but not as well as expected. The question about partisan division brought a surprisingly thoughtful answer from Cheney, while Edwards missed an opportunity to slam Republican hate speech. One mention of Rush Limbaugh's name, and even the dullest dullards in the audience would have understood which side was truly responsible for demonizing the opposition.

When the topic turned to Edwards' relative inexperience, he should have brought up the fact that his qualifications roughly parallel those on the Bush resume in 2000. Given the fiasco of the current administration, such a comparison might not have worked to Edwards' advantage. But he could have made the analogy work if he chose his words well.

Edwards should have hammered harder on topic of the administration's lies about WMDs. Reminding viewers of W's reliance on falsehood would have brought into question the credibility of every GOP claim on every topic -- including the smears against Kerry.

As for Cheney's outrageous lie that he never claimed that Saddam was allied with Osama, history speaks for itself. Cheney may not have said that they were actually married, but he certainly implied they were sleeping together.

I'll repeat one of my favorite fun facts: On September 17, 2001, only three percent of the U.S. populace thought that Saddam was behind 9/11. Later, nearly two-thirds of the populace bought into that particular lie. Such misapprehensions do not happen by accident: As the old song reminds us, you have to be carefully taught.

Even so, I do not think either man delivered a clock cleaning. Edwards disappointed, but functioned efficiently. Cheney was...Cheney.