Tucker Carlson's Debate Blog: Round 2
Editor's Note: Tucker Carlson, co-host of CNN's political debate program "Crossfire," is providing a view from the right on the vice presidential debate through this CNN.com blog. Follow along as he shares his observations and send us your own by typing them in the "Share Your Comments" box to the right.
Edwards on Dad
Posted: 10:41 p.m. ET
Apparently John Edwards' father once worked in a mill. Who knew?
Censorship?
Posted: 10:35 p.m. ET
Edwards is going to try to censor drug company ads? Where's the ACLU?
Hussein and 9/11
Posted: 10:33 p.m. ET
Edwards is smart to keep making the point that Saddam Hussein was not responsible for 9/11.
Missing questions
Posted: 10:30 p.m. ET
Shouldn't someone ask at least one question about Sadr City or Falluja?
Can you hear me now?
Posted: 10:26 p.m. ET
Cheney's audio guy ought to be fired.
Bold move
Posted: 10:24 p.m. ET
Edwards says Americans want a president who is strong, wise and honest. Now he reveals that he agrees with what John Kerry said about terrorism the other night.
John Edwards is a bold man.
Halliburton again
Posted: 10:19 p.m. ET
More Halliburton? Does that line of attack win a single undecided voter for Kerry? I'd doubt it.
Cheney's losing them
Posted: 10:17 p.m. ET
"... As part of Part B of Medicare..." The moment Cheney uttered that phrase, millions switched to Seinfeld reruns.
Lawsuits and medical costs
Posted: 10:14 p.m. ET
Personal injury cases "don't have much to do" with medical costs? What a total lie. Hard to believe Edwards would say that.
'Too many lawsuits'?
Posted: 10:12 p.m. ET
"We do have too many lawsuits," says John Edwards -- who got rich from personal injury cases.
'Long-term' and 'stable'?
Posted: 10:10 p.m. ET
So Edwards is only for domestic partnerships between gays in "long-term, stable relationships"? Who is gong to determine what "long-term" and "stable" mean? What about couples who've just met?
What a stupid line.
Bad form
Posted: 10:02 p.m. ET
Why did John Edwards just bring up Dick Cheney's daughter? Bad form. Over the top, really.
Cheney on gay marriage
Posted: 10:00 p.m. ET
Brave answer from Cheney on gay marriage.
Ouch
Posted: 9:51 p.m. ET
Cheney: "The first time I met you was when you walked on this stage tonight." Ouch.
Who cares about Halliburton?
Posted: 9:49 p.m. ET
Edwards is going off on Halliburton again. What a boor. Even if every single charge he makes it true, what the hell does any of it have to do with the war in Iraq -- why we went or what we're going to do now? Nothing.
What does Cheney think of the president?
Posted: 9:41 p.m. ET
Whatever you think of his ideas, Cheney is wildly articulate and smart. It would be interesting to know what he really thinks of Bush.
Don't mess with Cheney
Posted: 9:40 p.m. ET
Remind me not to fool with Dick Cheney. He just spanked Edwards. Painful.
Surprise
Posted: 9:38 p.m. ET
What a surprisingly tough debate.
Cheney the budget slasher?
Posted: 9:36 p.m. ET
Edwards may be right that Cheney is a wanton defense budget slasher. But he'll never convince voters of that. People will simply not believe that Cheney ever wanted to de-fund the military.
Attacks on foreign policy
Posted: 9:34 p.m. ET
Edwards has made a series of fairly explicit attacks on the administration's foreign policy. Cheney has responded to every one in the same way Bush did last week -- not by refuting the charges, but by calling Kerry and Edwards inconsistent.
The Dean effect
Posted: 9:31 p.m. ET
Cheney is absolutely right that Edwards and Kerry voted against funding the war in an effort to neutralize Howard Dean.
Why the world hates the U.S.
Posted: 9:28 p.m. ET
What a ludicrous argument Edwards is making. The rest of the world hates us because Bush is a liar? Please.
It's true that Bush is wildly unpopular in Europe. But the United States is distrusted abroad because of longstanding, bipartisan policies like support for Israel.
Edwards not helping
Posted: 9:23 p.m. ET
Edwards does his campaign no favors by claming that Afghanistan is a disaster, both because it's not true (the country is much less a mess than it was) and also because voters don't want to believe that.
Cheney on Afghanistan
Posted: 9:20 p.m. ET
Hard to argue with Cheney's point that the coming elections in Afghanistan are a sign of some progress there.
Interesting that Cheney mentions the improved status of Afghan women three times.
Edwards on Afghanistan
Posted: 9:17 p.m. ET
In the same paragraph, Edwards says the U.S. military "did terrifically" in Afghanistan and that the U.S. military didn't do enough in Afghanistan.
Right to the heart
Posted: 9:12 p.m. ET
Edwards gets right to the heart of it in the first six minutes: no connection between Saddam Hussein and 9/11.
Prediction: Cheney wins
Posted: 8:48 p.m. ET
Paul and I just had dinner and are ready to blog. My pre-debate guess: Cheney wins. He's better in this format than he is as a stump speaker. And he has far less to lose than Edwards, so he's likely to be calmer.
Tucker Carlson, co-host of CNN's political debate program "Crossfire," is a political analyst based in CNN's Washington, D.C., bureau. He has covered politics and disorder from around the world for dozens of magazines and newspapers, including the New York Times, the Weekly Standard and the Wall Street Journal. He now writes for Esquire.
