There’s a lot of news traffic today about the Vice Presidential Debate last night. Quite a few interesting stories. I’ll go through a few of them…

Oops, Wrong Website

Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally told everyone to check the facts at factcheck.com instead of factcheck.org. That little mistake means that everyone looking for proof that Cheney is a good guy was greeted by “Why we must not re-elect President Bush” at GeorgeSoros.com, where factcheck.com redirects to.

Reported by fcw.com, ABC News.

Haven’t I met you before?

Cheney said:

Now, in my capacity as vice president, I am the president of Senate, the presiding officer. I’m up in the Senate most Tuesdays when they’re in session.

The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight.

Which is funny, because, as many news sites are now reporting, of course they have met before, and in 2001, they even sat next to each other at an event.

Various sites are kind of scarce on the polls today. I’d like to see a few more interesting polls…

MSNBC Poll: Who won the debate?

Vote.

CNN Poll: Who do you think won last night’s vice presidential debate?

See the results.

Update: Who really won? CNN apparently had a poll up right after the debate, in exactly the same format as the poll about the Presidential Debate but at some point they took it off the main site. The original poll is still available from their site. Compare that to the new one.

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.

During tonight’s Vice Presidential debate, Dick Cheney said the following:

There’s no better antidote to poverty than a good well-paying job.

Really?! Hmm, I thought the cure to being poor would be a low paying job!