Last night I watched the Vice Presidential Debate between Vice President Dick Cheney and Senator John Edwards at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland on C-SPAN2. I wanted to write a bit about the debate.

Overall the debate was actually much better than the Presidential Debate last week. I felt that it was a lot less controlled, and a lot more real to life. My impressions of the candidates were:

Dick Cheney came off as a real asshole overall. He kept throwing out unnecessary “zingers”, kept smirking, and kept showing entirely too much with his facial expressions. He avoided a lot of questions, kept fidgiting with his chin and his hands, and continuously talked down to John Edwards. Overall he made me feel uneasy.

John Edwards seemed very down to earth, had a slightly southern accent, and overall seemed like a “nice guy”. Even though you know he doesn’t care for Dick Cheney or the Bush administration, he didn’t talk down to Cheney or seem condescending. He acted very professional throughout the whole debate, took a lot of notes, and stayed very much on-topic. He seems young, and in touch with reality. Overall he made me feel good, made me like him.

As the debate went on, Cheney constantly smirked, strayed way off topic a few times, and seemed to avoid a few questions. He kept throwing out “zingers” like:

Cheney: With respect to the cost, it wasn’t $200 billion. You probably weren’t there to vote for that.

and

Cheney: Your rhetoric, Senator, would be a lot more credible if there was a record to back it up. There isn’t.

One of the biggest and most interesting things that was discussed was Cheney and his relationship to Halliburton. This topic came up several times, and I felt that Cheney was trying desperately to avoid the subject. Halliburton is a huge, corrupt mess, and Cheney knows it.

I think, overall, in my opinion, John Edwards won by a huge margin.