The VP debate

I watched only for a few minutes. Hopefully John will be able to take it in stride that I didn’t watch.

One of the reasons I don’t watch debates and conventions is because I consider them large-scale photo-ops for the candidates and you know each party will claim its candidate won. Were debates opportunities for (mostly) unrestrained give-and-take like the House of Commons’ Prime Minister Questions, then I’d make the effort to watch. The Conventions would still be photo-ops no matter what.

Here’s the transcript. Hewitt graded the answers. Check out Allah‘s post on the Factcheck.org comment

At some point tonight after Cheney’s gaffe, Factcheck.com was reconfigured to redirect visitors to George Soros’s website. Whether this was done at Soros’s behest or whether any cash changed hands in the process, no one knows (yet) — although, as I’m sure Atrios and Oliver Willis would remind us, a little money on the dresser is a distinct possibility. In any case, if Drudge can tear himself away from trying to decode the subliminal messages in NBC News segments, I expect tomorrow morning he’s going to take this story and ram it in sideways by making it top of the page on the Report. And you know what’s going to happen then? Millions of people who wouldn’t otherwise have bothered are going to visit (a) Soros’s site, where they’ll look around for five seconds before clicking away, and (b) the Factcheck.org site, where they’ll actually end up reading at least part of the article that destroys the Dems’ bullshit moonbat rantings about Halliburton.

As to the debate’s cosmetics, I’m probably one of the few women who consider Cheney handsome and Edwards unattractive (well, at least Mark Steyn and Andrew Sullivan agree with me). Both men wore red neckties and dark suits. This AP story compares them to Darth Vader and Peter Pan. I’m grateful it’s not Darth & Luke — “Luke, I’m your father!” just wouldn’t do, and Cheney’s not wheezeey like Darth. AP’s also splitting hairs as to whether Cheney & Edwards had met or not, when the point is, as Cheney put it,

You’ve missed 33 out of 36 meetings in the Judiciary Committee, almost 70 percent of the meetings of the Intelligence Committee. You’ve missed a lot of key votes: on tax policy, on energy, on Medicare reform. Your hometown newspaper has taken to calling you “Senator Gone.” You’ve got one of the worst attendance records in the United States Senate.”

Edwards must be following Kerry’s exemplary Senate attendance.