Watching The VP Debate On The BBC

I'm too much of a political junkie. It's 2 AM local time in London, and I'm watching Cheney and Edwards on the BBC. It's a 90 minutes debate, I doubt I'll be able to fall asleep. It just started, and they're only on the second question, and Edwards is already winning. Cheney is firm and forthright, and absolutely sticking to his guns, but he blatantly totally evaded answering the first question (whether Paul Bremer's statement yesterday that there were not enough troops on the ground in Iraq was supported by a current report being prepared by the administration). Edwards is smooth, concise, and pin-point on message. This is going to be good. They are going right after each other. They're on the second question now, and they've each already directly accused each other of lying.

35 minutes into the debate. Good for Gwen Eiffel! As moderator, she went back to the first question that Cheney had evaded. She addressed it directly to Edwards, forcing Cheney to at least acknowledge it in his response. It's all hard-hitting. Edwards has even interrupted Cheney once, and he's bringing up Halliburton's no-bid contract, the fact that Halliburton did business with Iran and Libya during Cheney's tenure, the fact that Cheney lobbied for dropping sanctions on Iran. The best Cheney can do is deny the allegation that Halliburton was involved in bribing officials of foreign countries during his tenure as CEO.

By the way, Cheney is spending way too much time talking with his head down, not making eye contact, or with his hands folded in front of him.