Did Edwards sandbag Cheney?

[immoderate]

I saw most of the debate, and thought it was a tie. I didn't post that opinion because I didn't want to don my flame retardant suit.

The way people score around here, they award a point to Edwards for anything he says that they agree with, and they award another point to Edwards for anything Cheney says they disagree with. Hardly to be argued with.

The question I have now is, why didn't Edwards point out that he had met Cheney previously? He must have known.

Is Edwards smart enough and quick enough to have left it for the news cyclers to discover and torture Cheney with over several news cycles?

I'd love to think my candidate is THAT GOOD! But it strains credibility. And on the other hand...:shrug:

What do you people think?

--IMM

[autorank]

1. Edws-top 25 lawyer in the USA--He's that smart and more!!!

Watch him close over the next 25 days. He had his baptism under fire and survived. Now he'll be out there kicking some serious * ass and Cheney will speak to pre-screened crowds of the deluded. Edwaards rocks and he's going to rock a lot harder.

[Cha]

8. Edwards does indeed RAWK!

:yourock:

[unblock]

2. he might not have known what the media would do, but he DID know

that pointing that out during the debates makes him look small and cheney big.

"i didn't ever meet you before"
"yes you did, i remember you, but you don't remember me"

see, this makes it look like cheney is some important guy that everyone remembers meeting, but edwards is insignificant and not worth remembering.

edwards was wise to let it slide. even if the media didn't pick up on it, edwards was better off not pointing it out himself.

[immoderate]

10. I like that.

--IMM

[Cha]

3. A DUer(sorry don't remember) earlier today pointed

out that Edwards as a lawyer..Never mind..I bookmarked it!:)


"Devil Dog Dem (1000+ posts) Wed Oct-06-04 12:51 AM
Original message
Do you know why Edwards didn't call Cheney out on his lies?


Particularly the easy ones like "never linked Saddam to 9/11" and "We've never met"??

Because as an experienced litigator, Edwards knows that -in a deposition - it is better to lock a person in on his "testimony" then to push back and give them a chance to weasel out of it when you have them in a demonstrable lie. Then, when you are in trial you hit them with the lie in front of the jury, and their credibility is shot.

Here, had Edwards pushed back, there is a chance that Cheney would have weaseled out of it some (not sure how, but he COULD have tried). As it is now, K/E have clean statements from Cheney, and they can now run clean commercials showing Cheney saying one thing tonight, and something else long ago (like saying Saddam himself ordered airplanes into the WTC).

It took discipline, but Edwards held back and did the right thing.

Made sense to me! Clever Dawg!



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=982626

[clydefrand]

11. Agreed 100%

[Cha]

17. WE're on to our

Intelligent Dawgs! They are so smart and so good compared to murder inc.

So Edwards did EVEN BEtter than at First reported!


YAY! :bounce:

[msanthrope]

22. Damn good litigation advice.......n/t

[Booster]

4. Of course I had no idea if they had met or not, so I didn't think

anything about Edwards not answering, but when Cheney tossed in that he never said 9/11 and Iraq were connected, I jumped straight up in my chair because even I knew that was a lie. When Edwards didn't say anything about this either, I am of the impression that the Kerry camp already decided if something like that happened, they would use it over and over again in ads, etc, and the media would run it into the ground, which they have. If it was planned not to rebut these outright lies, it was brilliant strategy. You know Edwards remembers meeting Cheney; even his wife mentioned it after the debates, so........

[mourningdove92]

5. This is where Edwards did the best. He kept on his

message, which was to support John Kerry. He did not allow darth to pull him off message to defend himself. Shows what a class act he is.

[charlyvi]

6. There was a thread earlier today

which made a good point about this exactly. Poster said that, because Edwards is a trained trial attorney, his experience would not let him make a comment that would give Cheney an opening he could use to insult or denigrate Edwards. For instance, if Edwards had pointed out that he and Cheney met three times, Cheney could have responded with something like, "Well, it must not have made a big impression" or something similar. It could have made Edwards look diminished. Better that the media revealed the lie. I'm paraphrasing, but this was the main idea.

[atre]

7. Some Clarkies still can't get over the fact that he wasn't chosen as VP

The vast majority now fully support the ticket. Unfortunately, there are still holdouts.

[Bucky]

25. I'm a Clarkie and I agree, sorta. I still think Wes woulda been better

But then again, I never "got" the Edwards appeal. I don't wanna insult people by suggesting his looks play a part, but I've met so many lawyers in my life I think I know how to spot a "smooth" act. Edwards is sincere enough, and certainly is qualified enough to do the job. But I simply think Clark would be better prepared to be Prez should the worst come to pass and would have done a better smackdown job on Cheney in the debate.

I really don't have a lot to complain about with Edwards's perf, of course. He did a fine job and Cheney's performance is turning out to be lacking in truth enough to justify us claiming now a 2-0-0 record in the debates.

But I certainly can "get over" my guy not getting chosen for Veep. First off, Kerry beat my guy--he gets to choose. And in fact I think Kerry made the better choice for the election. Edwards is a better speechgiver than Clark, tho Clark is a better debater in those one-on-one contests. Normally speechmaking is more important for getting a voter turnout than the debates are. But then, nobody knew BC04 would do such a major meltdown in the debates. They're only fucking up Iraq moderately worse than they're fucking up the debates.

So I, as a Clarkie, am hardly bitter about the Edwards nom. I'm happy with how the campaign is progressing. I'm supportive, if not passionate, of our ticket. It would've been nice to have a genuine war opponent on the ticket instead of two guys who got suckered by the PNAC agenda. But the soul of democracy is compromise, vigilence, and negotiation. I'm content.

[clydefrand]

9. I think Edwards is sharper than Cheney

I heard on CNN this morning that Mrs. Edwards came upon the stage and said to Lynn Cheney, don't you remember when we met at the Prayer Breakfast in 2002? That takes courage to tangle with the alpha dog's wife. I say more power to you, Second Lady-to-be Edwards!! Repugs don't know how to attack head on. It's gotta be in front of their paid audience waving their signs and yelling 4 more years.

[Cha]

18. I read on DU that darth's wifey was on cnn or somesuch

and said .."who can remember FOUR years ago when they met"..paraphrasing here..

But if this is right..she said FOUR!

[w13rd0]

12. One has to wonder what notes he was taking...

...because he didn't go back and refer to them, he just jotted stuff down, then flipped to the next page. I'm thinking something like...


Dick Lie #982
"Senator Gone" - what hometown newspaper?!? His record ~ release

Dick Lie #991
"Never Met" - prayer breakfast, wink indicates she already knows, will follow-up

Dick Lie #997
"A.Q. Khan" - does media know he's talking about a guy Musharref, a coup leader who supported alQueada, pardoned, a pardon George supported?

Dick Lie...
you get the picture...

[immoderate]

13. Son of a gun!

As Butch Cassidy respecfully queried, "Who are those guys?" </admiration>

--IMM

[Fridays Child]

14. Edwards probably recognized that Cheney damaged his own character...

...by making remarks that were patently unworthy of responses.

[TrustingDog]

15. I think Edwards knew exactly what he was doing or not doing...

Chainy has been too comforted for too long and not in the game on his own... there's always terrier alerts, media, etc., to save his cottage cheese ass...

until last night.

edwards played it beautifully.

[Cleita]

16. Been reading posts like this one

and LTTE in a couple of newspapers. I have been wondering if I was watching the same debate. Cheney clearly lied. When Edwards didn't let him get away with the lies, he attacked Edward's character, which Edwards did not react to because that is what ad hominem attacks are supposed to achieve. Edwards deftly deflected the attacks and kept at his points.

Then Cheney tried to insert his propaganda points inferring that Edwards had backed issues that he is now denying, oh yes the "flip-flop" attack and Edwards gave back as good as he got. Then Cheney became morose and almost unintelligible in what he said after.

This was the debate I was watching. Edwards won on the fact that he exposed the lying bastard in the middle of his lies. Am I missing something?

[immoderate]

19. I think you're right but...

I think there are many who score on other criteria but truth and content (if they can get away with it.)

I'll bet there are those that would score on posture, tone, etc. and give it to Cheney because they want to believe.

If people thought like you, this would not be a close election.

--IMM

[noiretextatique]

24. my favorite reason for why edwards won

cheney is supposed to be the experienced statesman, with a supposed vast wealth of know-how and knowledge. all of that is supposed to make up for junior's lack of...well, everything.

cheney is supposed to be the ace-in-the hole, the assurance that bush, the idiot, has someone substantial to make up for his many deficits.

yet the supposed brain of the bush team couldn't deliver the knock-out against the democrats #2 guy. that spells d-e-f-e-a-t to me.

[VOX]

20. At least I saw the same debate you did, Cleita...

I agree with your assessment, point by point. I thought Edwards did a masterful job of "outing" Cheney's hypocrisy.

[Ducks In A Row]

21. Read a theory it was a trap

Edwards would remind Cheney of times they met, and then Cheney would sa that Edwards was too much a loser to be rememebered.


Lynne said something to that affect later, so I can beleive it was a trap for Edwards.

Edwards was right to ignore it, let Cheney look like a moron.

[immoderate]

23. Hoisted by the petard? Ha Ha

--IMM