Monday, October 04, 2004

Cheney v. Edwards, Part 2

Following up on Jack Pitney's comments about the upcoming veep debate, Dems need to be wary of this one. Edwards is very appealing and eloquent, but his command of the facts is often lacking. In one of the last Democratic primary debates, he completely whiffed a question on the Defense of Marriage Act. As I pointed out here back in January:

When asked about DOMA, Edwards said:

"what happened with the Defense of Marriage Act is it took away the power of states, like Vermont, to be able to do what they chose to do about civil unions, about these kinds of marriage issues."

Later, Brit Hume pressed him on this response and Edwards said:

No, the Defense of Marriage -- first of all, I wasn't in the Congress, I don't claim to be an expert on this. But as I understand the Defense of Marriage Act, it would take away the power of some states to choose whether they would recognize or not recognize gay marriages. That's my understanding of it.

That's completely wrong. The Defense of Marriage Act says that one state does not have to recognize the marriage between two homosexuals granted by another state.

Say what you will about him, but Cheney knows his stuff and a flub like that could elicit a devastating rejoinder from Cheney. Of course, knowing Cheney, he could go too far by ripping Edwards's still beating heart from his chest and eating it on national television.

1 comment:

Rothko said...

Isn't the fundemental difference this year that BC04 has a record to defend? BC00 could lob grenades from outside the palace walls. Now they're buried in a bunker in the secretly located palace. It's never as much fun to be the one receiving fire and Bush certainly showed he was un-prepared for it.

The expectations for Cheney are astronomically high. He basically has to re-set the table for his boss. Anything short of mopping the floor with Edwards and the perception (and it's all about perception) will be that BC04 has blown two golden opportunities to create seperation with their oponnents.

Edwards simply has to hold his own. He is one smooth mofo. The man became a millionaire because he could gain people's trust...that's not something anyone...not even Dick "Gravitas" Cheney should take lightly.

PS...Don't you think Dick is getting a little tired of having to prop Dubbya up?