...was last night between Dick Cheney and John Edwards. Edwards underperformed, probably because he was overprepared with pat speeches, not all of which were responsive (even by the low standards of responsiveness that are the hallmark of these events). A great trial lawyer, it turns out, is not necessarily a great politico on televison. (I hereby resign from picking political candidates.) Cheney, by contrast, is a pro: I can't recall the last time I saw such a confident, earnest, and well-spoken pathological liar and dissembler. No matter how huge the lie he was telling, he told it clearly and directly, without any uncertainty. If Bush were this good in this kind of setting, the race wouldn't be as close as it is.
I've not seen much of what other bloggers have said about the debate (I haven't looked, admittedly), though this comment on the debate by Ann Althouse (Law, Wisconsin) did catch my eye:
"Edwards says lines I think I remember Kerry saying last week. 'We lost more troops in September than we lost in August, we lost more troops in August than ...' The litany of defeatism. People have died, people have died. When I turn on NPR in the morning, the first thing I hear is nearly always the number of persons who just died in Iraq, almost never in a context connecting those deaths to what they fought for, just dismal, hopeless death."
Professor Althouse's son attends law school; he is not serving in Iraq, so won't become part of that famed "litany of defeatism."
UPDATE: Matt Davidson calls my attention to a nice piece on "Cheney's Avalanche of Lies." But it has to be conceded: Cheney is a good and effective liar, and since the ignorance of most people (culpable and otherwise) is quite extensive, all they have to go on are the verbal and physical cues, and in that regard Cheney is very good at not giving any of those we associate with liars and dissemblers. (And just to clarify something from the original posting: I certainly don't think Edwards did as badly as Bush--not even close. But qua performance, it was adequate, but underwhelming, I fear. But I'm not a typical viewer, so I may have this totally wrong.)
UPDATE: And another Cheney lie caught here.
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