Cheney -vs- Edwards ....1 Round Bout.

Well the Vice Presidential debates have ended and it's time to chime in with my opinion about what went down. It would seem clear that Cheney scored a decided victory, but alas this was just a victory over himself. I had expected him to be the huff-and-gruff politician that has become his trademark character. Instead he seemed to do a good job at portraying himself as somebody who really cares about America. Aside from an almost believable facade he put forth, the torrent of lies and misrepresentations that spewd forth from his mouth was unbelievable.

Granted, Edwards had put the liberal spin on a few of his statements, his inaccuracies amounted to little more than not being 100% correct 100% of the time. Cheney on the other hand felt that straight up lying was the best course of action. Even to the extent that he stated "The first time I ever met you (Senator Edwards) was when you walked on the stage tonight." Maybe it's Alzheimer's, but for one reason or another he just couldn't recall two previous occasions when they had met. The first time being at a National Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 1, 2001 where Cheney even acknowledged Edwards among those at the event. The second time was when Edwards had escorted Elizabeth Dole as she was sworn in as North Carolina's other senator on January 8, 2003. Cheney administered the oath.

In respect the GOP claims that Edwards, and Kerry for that matter, voted for the war, then against it. Edwards did vote that "The President is authorized to use the Armed Forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate.", in addition to making it clear that going to war was a last resort in the event that all other options had been exhausted and that we must have the support of the United Nations and a broad coalition of allied support. At the time even President Bush had stated that the resolution was not a resolution to go to war. Somehow though they now seem to claim it was an approval to go running across the desert, guns blazing.

To top it all off, the worst part about Cheney's claims to truth regarding himself and Halliburton, where he served as CEO before becoming the Vice President, was when he referred the American Voter to go to "Factcheck.com" to check the facts for themselves. "...if you go, for example, to FactCheck.com (sic), an independent Web site sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania, you can get the specific details with respect to Halliburton.", stated Cheney. Well that was pretty close. The actual site is factcheck.org and no they don't support his claims about Halliburton. Although it is true that Cheney hasn't personally profited from Halliburton's role in the Iraq war, it would be a safe bet that he is going to have a nice plush CONSULTING position with the company when his term is over.

Unfortunately this being a 1-Round debate between the two candidates, we won't get another chance to see the two of them square off again. This is probably a good thing for the Bush Administration since I doubt Cheney would be able to defend his lies, but also defend the lies he's had to layer upon the existing ones just to save face, which by the way got a real good Bitch-Slapping from Senator Edwards.