In this year's only vice presidential debate, neither Vice President Dick Cheney nor Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) passed up an opportunity to throw insults at each other.
No topic was off limits on Tuesday night, from gay marriage to education to the common insult of this election, Sen. John Kerry's alleged "flip-flopping" on whether it was right to go to war in Iraq.
The debate, hosted at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, was moderated by Gwen Ifill of "The NewsHour" and "Washington Week" on PBS. While it officially focused on domestic policy, talk of the war in Iraq still came up.
Alan Griffith, vice president of AU College Republicans, said Cheney "did a good job of articulately pointing out inconsistencies in the opponent."
One question for Cheney involved a Tuesday speech by Paul Bremer, the former head of the Coalition Provisional Authority of Iraq. In this speech, Bremer said that there were never enough troops on the ground.
To that, Cheney said, "It's important to look at all of our developments in Iraq within the broader context of the global war."
Cheney maintained that he still would have voted to go to war even if he knew what he knows today.
Edwards responded, "Mr. President, you are still not being straight with the American people. ... There is no connection between the attacks of Sept. 11 and Saddam Hussein."
The debate also looked at flip-flopping on both sides.
"What's wrong with a little flip-flop every now and then?" Ifill asked. "President Bush changed his mind about whether a homeland security department was a good idea or 9/11 Commission was a good idea."
Edwards said that Bush proposed a patients' bill of rights in the 2000 debate, but today is the only one standing in the way of the bill being passed. "Over and over, this administration has said one thing and done another," Edwards said.
Cheney countered, "I can think of a lot of words to describe Sen. Kerry's position on Iraq. 'Consistent' is not one of them." He also said Kerry was first for the No Child Left Behind Act, which was meant to increase accountability in public schools, and was then against it.
AU College Democrats President Greg Wasserstrom said he was pleased with how Edwards performed in the debate.
"John Kerry laid the broad plan in Thursday's debate," he said. "But John Edwards made policy more clear. He held Cheney over the fire for a lot of issues that haven't been answered yet."
Other issues that the debate examined included the abundance of medical malpractice lawsuits, gay marriage, education, jobs and taxes.
Ifill challenged both candidates by questioning Cheney, who has a lesbian daughter, about gay marriage, and asking Edwards, a former trial lawyer, what he thought about medical malpractice lawsuits.
Cheney said, "Four years ago in this debate, the subject came up. And I said then and I believe today that freedom does mean freedom for everybody. People ought to be free to choose any arrangement they want. It's really no one else's business."
Regarding his being a lawyer involved with medical malpractice lawsuits, Edwards said, "We think we have a plan to keep cases that don't belong in the system out, but we also do what they haven't done."
In an ABC News poll conducted after the debate, 43 percent of viewers thought Cheney had won, while 35 percent thought Edwards had won.
Originally published 11:17 a.m. Oct. 6 on www.TheEagleOnline.com.
