Pardon if this was mentioned somewhere before, but I sure missed it.
Cheney had a huge advantage built into the set. The sit-down format is exactly what the weekend talking head shows that Cheney has haunted the past few years require of guests. Cheney has clearly mastered that setting, sparring with Tim Russert and others.
Edwards, in contrast, is used to working on his feet in front of a jury. He tried to adapt his emotive hand-gestures to the debate format, but it just did not work, particularly his flabby close.
Don’t know how the format was selected, but if the Kerry crew thought that putting Edwards in close proximity to Cheney at a table would draw out some sort of favorable contrast — they were wrong.
