please stop rubbing your microphone against your jacket, mr. burns...

finally, the president of the united states has shown up for the debates. it's too bad it was during the debate between vice presidential candidates. yes, dick cheney is that de facto commander-in-chief. this guy was slick, in command of the subject at hand. i could see dick cheney in the backrooms pulling the strings. it's not hard to see him as the driving force behind the iraqi war.

as for the debate, it thought dick cheney's arguments regarding the invasion of iraq were fundamentally flawed, perceive or otherwise, by the fact that he was once the ceo of haliburton, the company that received the single largest uncontested contract to rebuild iraq. money talks (i'm such a skeptic). secondarily, he continued to reiterate the al-qaeda/saddam hussein link. what's with that? if i was an american, i'd think either he was a liar or totally deluded. he believed the cia intelligence before the war but not now? i thought edwards just hammered the "president" on haliburton, saddam, and telling the truth on what's really going on in iraq... that was fun to watch.

as the incumbent, i'd expected dick cheney to defend the record of the current administration. he preferred to attack john edwards' attendance record in senate committees. what's with that? who cares?

i thought john edwards did quite well. not bad considering he was going up against the leader of the free world. he did better than john kerry, by the way. as an opponent, i expected him to point out inconsistencies, deficiencies, hypocrisies of dubya's administration. he came out and did just that, coming up with zingers all night long. for example, in fight against AIDS he said it was good to increase education and research but linked it to the fact that over 5 million americans lost their medical insurance last year alone and have no way of affording AIDS drugs.

moreover, edwards offered to the viewers alternative plans. i think that's what the undecided voter is after. dick had nothing really to offer other than the status quo both in iraq and domestic policy. i don't think the world can take another 4 years with out imploding...

i thought tonight was way more entertaining than the 1st presidential debate. the contestants were much more articulate. the zingers were flying left and right all night long. bring on the buffoons for another round on friday night.