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Despite CNN's reputation as the cable news channel people watch for breaking news coverage, cable viewers preferred Fox News Channel by a ratio of more than 2 to 1 during Tuesday's vice presidential debate. According to figures released by Nielsen Media Research, Fox News Channel drew 7.8 million viewers, while CNN could attract only 3.3 million. MSNBC pulled 1.5 million. All of those figures were eclipsed by the three major broadcast networks who together attracted 31 million viewers, with NBC leading the pack with 11.5 million.

Here's a rule of thumb for judging the debates. The first candidate who starts repeating the same stock phrases over and over is the loser. Last week, it was President Bush, who constantly kept falling back on his set line, "Anyone who keeps changing his mind on the war isn't fit to be commander-in-chief." Tuesday night is was John Edwards, who repeated the line "There is no connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein" eight times. He also said the administration should "tell the American people the truth" six times. Every time Cheney boxed him into a corner, he returned...

The power behind the throne was out-manoeuvred by Edwards Sidney Blumenthal Thursday October 7, 2004 The Guardian Each man had his mission for the vice-presidential debate. For John Edwards, it was to continue John Kerry's momentum from his debate triumph over President Bush; for Dick Cheney, to halt it in its tracks. Edwards assailed Cheney's credibility; Cheney demeaned Edwards's status. But the debate went past scoring points into a clash of political cultures. Edwards began immediately to separate the Iraq war from the war on al-Qaida. Reports that morning provided a propitious backdrop. Paul Bremer, the former coalition provisional authority...

Cheney Outshines Edwards; North Korea Outshines Iraq Written by Isaiah Sterrett Thursday, October 07, 2004 This is what happens when you choose your running-mate solely on the basis of his superior use of hairspray. Several days ago I was taking advantage of Al Gore’s best and most well-known invention, the world-renowned ''Internet,'' when I came across a column he’d written for The New York Times. (Someday, when I serve as vice president under an impeached, disbarred miscreant and then run a miserable presidential campaign which I lose to a virtually unknown politician from a dusty state, I look forward to...

Today's Rasmussen indicates that Cheney debate / Bush's comeback has stopped the bleeding.

October 6, 2004 -- LAST night John Edwards went from seeming to be like JFK to emulating Dan Quayle in the space of 90 minutes. Confronted with Dick Cheney's obvious competence, incisive parries to his charges and devastating rebuttal of his phony statistics, Edwards looked like the proverbial deer in the headlights. Normally, vice presidential debates are not significant. But this confrontation should serve President Bush well. With Edwards parroting Sen. John Kerry's line in last week's presidential debate, Cheney gave the answers Bush should have offered but failed to articulate. If the first presidential debate was a contrast of...

Highest rated debate in decades

THE CONTRAST could not be clearer. One side proposed a war and waged it. Yes, President Bush has been slow to correct mistakes made in the course of the war -- not that Vice President Dick Cheney would admit as much in Tuesday's debate in Ohio. Still, the administration has shown the resolve to win the war in Iraq and the war on terrorism. Cheney was right to assert that voters should know that re-electing this ticket is the only way they can be sure America won't cut and run. The other side voted to authorize the war, then was...

Both sides came out of Tuesday's vice-presidential debate claiming victory, though Democrats said they already expect the press — eager for an exciting election story — to declare President Bush the winner in tomorrow night's second presidential debate.     "I bet you any amount of money that's the story that'll get written," Mike McCurry, spokesman for Sen. John Kerry, told reporters yesterday. "Any takers?"     "The story line is so perfectly obvious, you know: Bush comes back, wins second debate, sets up the rubber game in Arizona," he said, referring to next Wednesday's event in Tempe, Ariz. The Bush campaign, meanwhile,...

Spin alley: A crowded place full of twists and turns Wednesday, October 06, 2004 Diane Suchetka Plain Dealer Reporter It was 20 feet wide, 120 feet long and so packed with people you could barely take a step without being elbowed, stepped on or smacked by a camera. If nothing else, you got hit by one-liners over and over again. Spin alley. With a full 10 minutes left in Tuesday's vice presidential debate, politicians and campaign advisers from both parties began filling the aisleway inside the media center at Case Western Reserve University ready to sway the voters. "I think...

John Edwards looked like Opie last night, and he sounded like Barney Fife, and after that mistake by the lake, there's only one place John Edwards [related, bio] should be headed today. To Michigan, for a nice long ride in Mike Dukakis' tank. It may not have changed a lot of minds, and it dragged big time in the last half. And of course everyone was clicking back and forth between Cleveland and the Yankees game. But if last night's debate had been a prize fight, it would have been stopped around 9:20, and Gwen Ifill would have passed the...

(CNSNews.com) - There is no connection between Saddam Hussein and the 9/11 attacks, Sen. John Edwards insisted several times Tuesday night. But Vice President Dick Cheney said the Kerry-Edwards team is missing the larger point about state-sponsored terrorism. "I have not suggested there's a connection between Iraq and 9/11," Cheney responded. "But there's clearly an established Iraqi track record with terror. And the point is that [Iraq's] the place where you're most likely to see the terrorists come together with weapons of mass destruction, the deadly technologies that Saddam Hussein had developed and used over the years." Cheney said the...

<p>In a just-concluded interview with Tim Russert, Katie Couric proved herself something of an equal opportunity basher, ripping Kerry and Edwards on their Iraq voting flip-flops while flatly accusing Dick Cheney of being "dishonest."</p> <p>Today's basic line on the debate was clear from the jump: this was a very tough fight. Pugilistic allusions filled the airwaves, as the various reporters and hosts spoke of a "bare-knuckled brawl," in which "the gloves came off" [a requirement, after all, for a bare-knuckled brawl], "going for the jugular," "testy," "highly contentious,""nasty," "uncomfortable," etc.</p>

I went to bed happy that it was clear even to Chris Matthews that Fluffy Edwards have been leashed and disciplined by Cheney. Then I turn on Fox and Edie is just going on about what a future Edwards has. Help me here, I'm dying. If Edwards has a future in politics the rest of us are dead. Literally dead. He is the worst of the worst a slick trial lawyer.

Jacque Jones, the Minnesota Twins right fielder who led his team to a 2-0 win over the Yankees in the opening game of this year's Division Series last night, was not the only one who hit one out of the park last night. A long ball into the deep seats was also hit last night at Case Western Reserve University when Vice President Dick Cheney, appearing confident, knowledgeable and clearly more experienced than his rookie opponent, slammed Senator John Edwards in a very lopsided performance in favor of the Vice President in this election season’s 2004 VP Debate. Paralleling the...

Somewhere around 9:45 last night, Richard Cheney, vice president of the nation, turned and said to Sen. John Edwards, Democratic candidate, that he missed big votes in the Senate and had the worst attendance record. Cheney said that he sat as the head of the Senate and was there for practically every session. Cheney spoke in a deep, dull, confident voice and said things like, "al-Zarqawi has been in Baghdad before the war and after the war." As if all this smoke and fire and reports of dead soldiers and dead babies are an illusion. Now he said snidely to...

Dear Friends; First of all, the media is trying to spin this as a 'draw', but Cheney won hands down. In fact, he opened up a big fat industrial sized can of whoop-you-know-what on poor little Senator Gone (as America now knows Edwards home town paper's nickname for him). The conservatives have made a great deal of Senator Kerry's absence from many key committee meetings and senate votes, but it was interesting the way the Vice President brought out Edward's own absense from the Senate. Basically Cheney said that as Vice President he takes his duty as President of the...

Wow! Cheney is actually leading in this poll. C'mon Freepers! Let's put this one away!

I didn't listen to closely to the FactCheck.org reference that Cheney made. I did find out that you have to use case carefully. factcheck.com gets you to a George Soros site. Ick. factcheck.org gets you to the Anneburg site. Ick. FastCheck.org gets you to the site that Cheney referred to, but the server is too busy. I hope that people aren't stopping at the Soros or Anneburg site

Somebody pick the carcass up off the floor of Case Western University. It used to be John Edwards, Democratic Vice Presidential Candidate. The only body part that's moving is his hand, which he kept pointing and poking in such an annoying and distracting manner for 90 minutes. Yes, we're a partisan bunch, but keep in mind we thought John Kerry won a "split decision" in the Presidential debate the other night. In the 90 minute debate this evening Dick Cheney teed up John Edwards and drove him about 300 yards down the middle of the fairway. Edwards was reduced to...

Twenty minutes into the debate, Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John Edwards had already thrown enough jabs to keep the eyes of four undecided voters glued to the television. "The gloves have come off," said Moorhead librarian Jim Hewitt as Republican vice presidential candidate Cheney and Democrat Edwards started a fresh round of accusations. In the end, Cheney came away as the stronger candidate, in the view of Hewitt and three other undecided voters who are taking part in a project by The Forum and WDAY-TV. "For what it's worth, I think Cheney won the debate tonight," Hewitt said....

Bernie Goldberg call your office!! Media bias on display!! Ever since John Edwards was selected as John Kerry's running mate, I've been doing a lot of thinking back about Dan Quayle and the way the mainstream media crucified him in the 1988 election for his perceived shortcomings. Remember how they were all over Quayle for lacking - in their eyes - presidential "stature" and "gravitas"? Well, compared to Edwards, Quayle comes across like a veritable Winston Churchill! When you think about it, the similarities between the two are strikng: both are good-looking senators (Edwards being first term, while Quayle was...

Cheney & Edwards Mangle Facts Getting it wrong about combat pay, Halliburton, and FactCheck.orgOctober 6, 2004Modified:October 6, 2004 Summary   Cheney wrongly implied that FactCheck had defended his tenure as CEO of Halliburton Co., and the vice president even got our name wrong. He overstated matters when he said Edwards voted "for the war" and "to commit the troops, to send them to war." He exaggerated the number of times Kerry has voted to raise taxes, and puffed up the number of small business owners who would see a tax increase under Kerry's proposals. Edwards  falsely claimed the administration "lobbied the...

Big-City Editorials Rate the Debate, Give Slight Edge to Edwards By E&P Staff Published: October 06, 2004 10:00 AM EDT NEW YORK Wednesday morning's editorials in big-city papers on last night's vice presidential debate gave mixed marks to both Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John Edwards, with the verdict favoring Edwards somewhat but no one declaring a knockout punch by either man. The Washington Post gave the North Carolina senator a slight edge. "The Democrat was more effective, and more on point, in challenging Mr. Cheney on rationales for the Iraq war that have proven false, in particular connections...

Vice President Dick Cheney prevailed in the vice presdiential debate-and more support from his tickets side than John Edwards got from his. Among registered voters who watched the debate, 43 percent said Cheney won, 35 percent called Edwards the winner and 19 percent called it a tie.One factor is that more Republicans tuned in-38 percent of Republicans, 31 percent Democrats and the rest Independents. Among supporters of the Republican ticket, 80 percent called Cheney the winner.Among supports of the Kerry/Edwards ticket, 69 percent called Edwards the winner, and more called it a tie.

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) Fast National ratings for Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2004. The combination of a televised debate between Vice President Dick Cheney and Democratic contender Sen. John Edwards and the start of the baseball playoffs on FOX made Tuesday's ratings race more confusing than usual. However, the end results weren't unusual, with CBS winning overall and NBC taking the key demographic. Overall, CBS averaged a 7.2 rating/11 share, better than ABC's 5.9/9 and NBC's 5.8/9. FOX was a decent fourth with a 5.3/8 and The WB a respectable fifth with a 3.8/6. UPN trailed with a 2.0/3. NBC won among...

Notice that everything Cheney said was attached to a figure, while everything Edwards said involved persuasion. Example: For example, a gay couple now has a very difficult time, one, visiting the other when they're in the hospital, or, for example, if, heaven forbid, one of them were to pass away, they have trouble even arranging the funeral. Heaven forbid? You understand that this gay couple is hypothetical, right? They don't actually exist? He has almost no ability for genuione compassion, so he fakes it; but he fakes it so often that he doesn't actually know when faking it is unnecessary....

Wednesday, October 6, 2004 Bush criticizes Kerry, but Edwards calls him 'out of touch' By TOM RAUM Associated Press Writer CLEVELAND - President Bush offered a sharp if familiar critique of his rivals on Wednesday, picking up where Dick Cheney left off in the vice presidential debate while defending the war in Iraq and their economic policies. Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards responded by calling the president "completely out of touch with reality." Bush assailed Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry as he usually does in campaign appearances, accusing the Massachusetts senator of wavering in his support of the war...

Bush futures remain in the range 60-61 in quiet trading following the VP debate, equating to the market believing Bush has about a 60% chance of winning the November 2 contest.

Dick Cheney's solidity and steadiness mark him as the Bushie the left most loves to hate. There he was in Cleveland in the vice-presidential debate — the big dog against the ankle-biter, the reliable Lab showing the way to the undisciplined yapper who won't stay off the furniture. John Edwards made millions as a plaintiff's lawyer suing physicians for medical malpractice. A year ago he was introduced to 75 top trial lawyers in "The Inner Circle" by the group's president Ned Good this way: "John Edwards is one of us. First and foremost, he's a trial lawyer who just happens...

Who do you think won the vice presidential debate? Cheney 41.3% (517) Edwards 49.7% (622) They tied 9.0% (112) Total votes: 1251

Tuesday night's vice presidential debate didn't have the ratings gusto of last week's top-ticket tussle, but its 101 minutes outperformed the lone debate in 2000. More than 43.5 million people watched the live 9-11 p.m. EDT debate between Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John Edwards, according to data released Wednesday afternoon by Nielsen Media Research. It delivered a 28.1 household rating/41 share. The debate was broadcast on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News Channel, CNN and MSNBC; Fox didn't air the debate because of its telecast of the first game of the American League Divisional Series. Tuesday night's debate rated...

The Debate: We keep hearing how "9-11 changed everything," and John Edwards said it again Tuesday night. Unfortunately for him, it also applies to how we look at vice presidential candidates.Vice presidential debates can be tedious. Not this time. The stakes are too high. We're a nation at war, and our enemies have shown they'd like nothing better than to fly an airplane straight into the White House or Capitol.Times like these demand a person of experience and seriousness at the president's side, not some green, too-slick trial lawyer who wears his lightness well. In watching the debate, we saw...

During the Vice Presidential debate, Senator John Edwards asked how Vice President Dick Cheney could possibly oppose laws such as one preventing "plastic" guns that can avoid metal detectors. The bill in question was written and supported by the NRA and supported by gun control groups. Senator Edwards implied that only someone far outside the mainstream could vote "no," and Edwards obviously wanted to use this vote to question Cheney's seriousness in dealing with terrorism. Dick Cheney was one of only a handful of congressmen who voted against the bill when it came up in 1986. Yet, it was bad...

Last night, John Edwards recycled the claim that Dick Cheney has said that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11. In the post debate spin, Chris Matthews claimed that NBC had tape of Cheney making that claim. Actually, the tape is an edited version of an exchange between Cheney and Tim Russert in which Cheney specifically denies that Hussein had anything to do with 9/11. NBC played the tape, but left off the part where Cheney specifically denies that Hussein was involved in 9/11. But what NBC left out totally negates what they try to imply with the selective quote: RUSSERT:...

Fact check item, number two: On Wednesday morning's Today, NBC's Brian Williams repeated his crumbling claim from Tuesday night on both NBC and MSNBC that Cheney misspoke in denying he'd said that those "responsible for 9/11" were based in Iraq. Williams repeated his claim during last night's prime time coverage on NBC and MSNBC that a tape of Cheney on Meet the Press contradicts this claim, even though it does no such thing. For details of what Williams claimed last night, go to: http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2004/cyb20041006am.asp#3 Appearing during the 9am EDT hour of Wednesday's Today, MSNBC host Chris Matthews angrily seized on...

Debate Ratings: 7.8 Mil Viewers Watch FNC Fox News Channel averaged 7,816,000 viewers during the Vice Presidential debate, according to Nielsen ratings. CNN averaged 3,326,000 viewers and MSNBC averaged 1,485,000. It was FNC's sixth highest-rated telecast ever. > Between 8 and 11pm, FNC averaged 6,301,000 viewers, CNN averaged 2,623,000 and MSNBC averaged 1,258,000. # 10/6/2004 04:22:50 PM

Vice President Dick Cheney accomplished his main goals for the one vice-presidential debate of this election. He mounted a vigorous defense of the Bush administration's policy on Iraq and he painted the Kerry-Edwards ticket as inconsistent and lacking in good judgment. Additionally, Cheney came across as confident, knowledgeable, intelligent, seasoned, reasonable, steady, low-key, and earnest. And he really stuck it good to Edwards on his attendance record. But by every traditional measure of good public speaking, Cheney is a truly wretched communicator. His sins include the following: staring down constantly, cocking his head awkwardly, placing his chin on his hands,...

A group of 20 uncommitted voters, assembled for a focus group for Tuesday night’s vice-presidential debate, agreed overwhelmingly that Vice President Dick Cheney was stronger on the facts than Sen. John Edwards — although they liked Edwards’s language and presentation better. None said the outcome of the debate would change their vote on Nov. 2, but many said Cheney’s performance puts even more pressure on President Bush to improve upon his own widely panned showing in his first debate with Sen. John Kerry. The 20 panelists — 12 leaning toward Bush and eight toward Kerry — were gathered at the...

Democrats are fraudulently skewing online polls asking about last night's vice presidential debate to favor Sen. John Edwards – at least that's the contention of several Net users who have pointed out strangely lopsided results in various surveys. "You have either been hacked or the DNC [Democratic National Committee] gremlins are at it big time," one reader wrote to WorldNetDaily about the newssite's poll, pointing out that 2,000 votes were added to three separate pro-Edwards responses "in the middle of the night." WND's poll asking who won the vice presidential debate went live at 1 a.m. Eastern.

As I watched the VP debates last night I saw a small clip that I told my wife would be all over FreeRepublic today, but I guess I was wrong. There was a moment near the end of the debate where Edwards admitted to breaking the rules, not once but twice in a matter of seconds. He even smiled as he said it as if rules meant nothing to him. Here is the transcript. IFILL: Mr. Vice President, picking up on that, you both just sang the praises of the tops of your ticket. Without mentioning them by name at...

Give Us a Break Here's another bit of class-warfare demagoguery from Edwards: The country needs to know that under what they have put in place and want to put in place, a millionaire sitting by their [sic] swimming pool, collecting their statements to see how much money they're making, make their money from dividends, pays a lower tax rate than the men and women who are receiving paychecks for serving on the ground in Iraq. Wrong, according to the Internal Revenue Service Web site: If you serve in a combat zone as an enlisted person or as a warrant officer...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney probably did not intend to direct millions of television viewers to a Web site calling for President Bush's defeat but that's what a slip of the domain achieved. Anyone who heeded Cheney's advice and clicked on "factcheck.com" was greeted on Wednesday morning with a message from anti-Bush billionaire investor George Soros entitled "Why we must not reelect President Bush." "President Bush is endangering our safety, hurting our vital interests, and undermining American values," Soros' message said. Defending his record as Halliburton's chief executive, Cheney said in the Tuesday night debate that Democratic vice-presidential...

At the start of Hard Ball tonight, Chris Matthews was pathetic in his attempt to spin his and MSNBC's misquoting of VP Richard Cheney last night. I'm sure everyone here saw how Matthews and Williams tried to claim that Cheney was misleading in the debate when he claimed that he had not said Iraq was part of 9/11. They followed it with a clip from "Meet the Press"., and tried to claim that Cheney was saying tha Iraq was part of 9/11 when he said ... "...we will have struck a major blow right at the heart of the base,...

I think Cheney made the case that Edwards and Kerry simply have better things to do than "report for duty". Their voting records reflect this. Cheney skewered Edwards when he said that the debate was the first time that he had met Edwards. Cheney evidently forgot about that one time at the prayer breakfast. Aside from the fact that Dick Cheney has made literally thousands of more memorable acquaintances since that ONE time. Aside from the fact that Edwards may not have made a lasting favorable impression. Aside from the fact that Cheney may have meant "met" in a more...

The first moderator of the Presidential debates asked extremely biased questions aimed at damaging the President and putting him on the defense.  He did not ask a single question critical of John Kerry.The moderator of the VP debate wasn't much better -- but the comparison to the first moderator made her appear to be more fair.  She wasn't, and asked Edwards leading questions while slamming Cheney with difficult ones.Now, I know it won't change things necessarily, but unlike PBS (which cannot be pressured by the public), ABC is a private sector company like CBS, and they saw what happened to...

After last week's presidential debate, last night Vice President Dick Cheney and Senator John Edwards faced opposite tasks. Since last week Bush demonstrated a sense of conviction but only the most rudimentary knowledge of the diplomacy, military tactics, and politics of the war in Iraq, last night Cheney had to demonstrate a mastery of the situation. He did so and then some. Since last week Kerry came across as competent and articulate but failed to prove himself a man of conviction, last night Edwards had to demonstrate determination and overarching purpose. Instead Edwards came across no better than Kerry. A...

I heard they mentioned and discussed Egypt, health care, Iran, meals on wheels, law suites, Africa, Tax cuts, Iraq, Social Security, Israel, Aids, open heart surgery, teachers, Korea, public schools, their voting records, who cares more about the troops, Medicare, Halliburton, etc etc.. Did they even mention the millions pouring into our country illegally, during war time yet? What is it now? 3 million a year? Are we kidding ourselves? Is the joke on us? We have a Presidential debate, a VP debate, and a speech today from the President of the United States, yet has either side even mentioned...

Last night on msnbc, Brian Williams ran this story questioning Dick Cheney's truthfulness. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3096434/ "Williams:Debate truth test (video). Looks like they played it again on Today. The transcript from the interview with Russert is attached. Pertinent info copied below http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3080244/ Cheney's own words used against him to show his untruthfulness(second to last sentence question one, "now we will have struck"). The only problem is Brian Williams fails to show you the follow-up question from Russert. Does any believe as I do that this rises to the level of CBS and Rather or is this the norm? From Sun, Sept 14,...