Veep debate blogging: What’s wrong with a little flip flop from time to time?

Transcript.

I can’t really tell who “won,” I’m not good at judging those things. Edwards seemed a little glib and shallow. Cheney made no effort to make himself likable, seemed defensive to me, but he might have looked quietly authoritative to people (undecided and/or ignorant voters) who don’t know better. A friend said he looked like he spent 90 minutes trying to take a poop. Wouldn’t it be funny if he really has just been constipated all these years? It would explain a lot.

Certainly, like Bush last week, he looked like he didn’t want to be there, didn’t want to have to explain himself or answer questions, felt it was beneath him.

Also, Cheney’s head is twice as big as Edwards’s.

They both stuck closely to just one or two themes, probably too closely, since if you don’t buy the argument, for example, that Iraq and 9/11 aren’t linked, the theme of Bush-Cheney being misleading falls flat.

Cheney said Kerry & Edwards have a very limited view of how to use US force. Like that’s a bad thing.

Cheney cited the El Salvador elections of the 1980s as a model.

Edwards says under Kerry, “we’re going to go back to the proud tradition of the United States of America and presidents of the United States of America for the last 50 to 75 years. First, we’re going to actually tell the American people the truth.” There’s a tradition of telling the American people the truth?

Cheney: If they can’t stand up to Howard Dean, how can they stand up to Al Qaida? Yeah, but Howard Dean is scarier (kidding, kidding).

Edwards keeps mentioning Kerry’s name in a question where the rules required him not to. Cheney doesn’t have that problem, and it occurs to me that he doesn’t really respect Bush that much.

Similarly, Edwards was able to refer to Mary Cheney, and the Dickster replied by giving up his turn. I foresee an awkward Thanksgiving.

Gwen Ifill asks, “What’s wrong with a little flip flop from time to time?” Well, as Wonkette would say... no, I won’t go there.