Second Stringers

The vice-presidential debate wasn't a blow out for either side. John Edwards held up well during the national security portion of the debate, which naturally favored Dick Cheney simply because of Cheney's grave demeanor and reputation. Edwards easily won the domestic policy section, despite the ridiculous questions that were being asked of him by the moderator , blasting the Administration's failures and serving up the Democrats' solutions. Cheney floundered, reciting irrelevant statistics and looking fairly cold and indifferent. A modest, but respectable victory for Edwards is a strategic defeat for the Republicans. They needed the Vice President to decisively defeat John Edwards in order to undermine Kerry's rise in the polls and Cheney didn't deliver.