what was the most maddening moment of the debate?

[uncertainty1999]

for me, it was Cheney blaming Kerry for increased Medicare premiums ... because he voted for the BALANCED BUDGET ACT of 1997!!

What has this world come to - a 'conservative' railing against balancing budgets, a 'war president' slamming his opponent (last Thursday0 for his desire to invest in protecting our ports and commercial airliners... I tried to get through to c-span tonight to set this straight but to no avail.

[EnfantTerrible]

1. The Moderator

I thought she was awful and that some of her questions were rediculous and irrelevant.

[DELUSIONAL]

3. I second that!

.

[Hello_Kitty]

7. Oh God! 2 questions about gay marriage?

Come on!! I thought they mostly agreed on that anyway, at least personally.

[EnfantTerrible]

21. Exactly

We all knew where Cheney stood on the subject and that there was very little difference between them. Cheney has been very clear about his stance on this because the media got all over him months ago already. Just a complete waste of time.

[phish420]

10. Yeah, whats with the 'dont use any names" crap

That was the dumbest thing I ever heard

[ZombieNixon]

20. It was also unclear

The question was "Without mentioning their name at ALL, how would you describe the differences between you and your opponent?" Look at that. The "name" is referring the the name of the "opponent." Edwards' opponent is Cheney, not Kerry, and Cheney's opponent is Edwards, not Bush. So why does Edwards get in trouble for saying "John Kerry" and Cheney not get busted for saying "Senator Edwards?"

[EnfantTerrible]

25. I'll have to look at the transcript

but I thought she did say don't use the name of the Presidential Candidate. Regardless it was a stupid and pointless restriction that did nothing to clarify anything at all... it seemed totally arbitrary... like a rule that kids would make up in a game that they're creating. Totally juvenile.

[CarolynEC]

2. It was when the Zarqawi softball was just hovering over the plate...

... waiting to be smacked out of the park... and JE let it go by. :(

Oh well, maybe JK has dibs on that one.

[no name no slogan]

18. That was definately the worst

That sucker was slow and in the strike zone, and it seemed that Edwards went for the bunt instead of pounding that fscker out of the park.

I also thought that the "mine's bigger" arguments about who will kill more terra-ists was a bit over the top, too. Most Americans now think that Iraq was a mistake, and that we need to get out soon, and that killing one terra-ist off means that ten new ones pop up to replace him.

Edwards seemed a little heavy on the talking points/stump speech, while Cheney looked like the experienced statesman by comparison (if you ignore the fact that he lied much of the time).

Overall, I'd call it a draw/narrow JE victory.

[Hello_Kitty]

4. I wanted to reach through the screen

And choke the fucking life out of that evil shitstain on the human race when he had the audacity to accuse Edwards of not showing respect to the Iraqi casualties after JE made the point that U.S. troops are bearing 90% of Coalition casualties. Un-be-fucking-lievable!! This, from the same administration that REFUSED to allow Iraqi casualties to be counted or for pictures of them to be shown for a long time into the war. :grr:

[merh]

12. I'm with you -- I was screaming at the screen, if we hadn't

f*ckin invaded and occupied their country, the Iraqis wouldn't be having casualties!

I also was po'd when E did not say about his experience in the senate was comparable to if not better than GWB's in 2000. Gov in TX is a light weight position and GWB has never had a successful business venture (of his own).

[no name no slogan]

19. That one scored points for Cheney

...and you have to give him credit for it. He set Edwards up, TWICE, to show some kind of empathy/remorse for the Iraqi security forces, and yet Edwards stuck to the talking points.

IMHO that was Edwards' low point, which really wasn't that low...

[in_cog_ni_to]

5. When dickhead attacked JE personally, out of left field.

Slimeball. :grr:

[Bread and Circus]

6. Cheney's profuse and ubiquitous cold-blooded lying.

Basically, whenever he opened his mouth.

[phish420]

8. Having the $87 Billion come up and STILL not answer it

I mean jesus fucking christ all mighty, can we please take care of this? The repblican congress defeated and the president threatened to veto the original bill that the voted FOR that provided the SAME THING, but without no bid contracts to haliburton and without taking out a loan on the world bank. So damn simple, but its like they have this deal...they are withholding something really damaging against Kerry that they will not release as long as he doesnt bring it up. That is honestly how I feel. I really WOULDNT care, except that that is the one thing I hear from people that are undecided - either that he flip flopped on this, or that he didnt support the troops. NEITHER is true, and it has to be clarified. I honestly feel they have missed both opportunities, tonight and last week to address this. Now they cant, because it would be another flip flop

edit- sorry for the negative post - I do still think that edwards kicked cheneys ass, but I am 'maddened' by the fact that twice in this debate and atleast once in the last one they had a golden opportunity to answer it straight, and they didnt for some unknown reason

[sandnsea]

23. Need a hearing aid?

He answered it. It's been answered ad nausuem. No to the wrong policy, no to not paying for it now, no to a $7.5 billion no-bid contract to Halliburton.

[sandnsea]

26. Iran sanctions - Halliburton

That sums up this Administration better than anything. When Cheney wanted to make money, he was more than happy to lift sanctions on Iran and have his business subsidiaries do business illegally with Iran. JE talked about it, but there was a point where he should have buried Cheney with it.

Lots of good moments, one good one was if the weapons inspectors had finished, we would have known there were no WMD which was the purpose of the IWR.

On edit, This was supposed to go below, oops. Oh well.

[LSdemocrat]

9. Cheney's sheer arrogance

Saying things that are just blatantly false, claiming he's never met Edwards, completely absurd attacks.

[knowbody0]

11. that JE had to sit that close to porky

[Gardeaux08]

13. How about

when Cheney denied linking 9/11 with Saddam Hussein...what was THAT!?

[phish420]

14. Agreed....Cheney is FAMOUS for linking the two!!...nt

[phish420]

15. In retrospect, I think this will stick with voters...

I think everyone knows he lied when he said that - it was so blatent and obvious...it kind of set the tone for the evening - this guy lies, then edwards comes out saying we want the people to hear the truth. That will resonate, because almost everyone knows that Cheney HAS linked the two.

[kwolf68]

16. Having pisspoor questions

One thing many suggest is Cheney is completely tied up with the oil industry and that the Energy Policy of this nation is being crafted by Oil Execs with Crashcart as a willing servent to these oligarchs.

of course, one of the most damning Domestic Agendas of Cheney (The Energy Task Force) was unable to find its way into this debate while they spent 15 minutes on gay marriage.

What a foooking joke

[punpirate]

17. When Cheney opened with a suggestion...

... that Hussein and Iraq were part of the terrorism of 9/11, and then denied it in the next round.

Hope the fact-checkers are busy tomorrow, because they're going to find a lot of lies and side-stepping by Cheney.

If there's a god, he should have set Cheney's pants on fire with a bolt of lightning or two.

Frankly, I hope the public senses that lying is the only thing that Cheney does well. He's a failure at everything else. :grr:

[no name no slogan]

22. The 1990 coalition vs. the current "coalition"

Cheney had a good comeback with the member countries being nearly the same, but Edwards only quoted the "90%" talking point.

IMHO, Edwards should have mentioned some of the REAL numbers: how most of these 'coalition' countries (save the UK) have < 200 people on the ground in Iraq, and that many (Spain and now Poland, among others) are withdrawing their forces. Compare that with the 120,000+ the US has on the ground, and you've got a MAJOR point.

Percentages are fine, but when people see the real numbers it truly puts things into perspective.

[CrowNotAngelGRL]

24. LOL

If it was in 1997 couldn't he have had a new budget plan with Bush? I thought they "fixed" everything from the Clinton adminstration. At least, that's what the reps claim.