Some thoughts on the Edwards-Cheney debate [View All]

[Onlooker]

The Repugs must worry that Bush will have difficulty defeating Kerry in the next two debates, so I think they will have Cheney hit hard. Assuming Edwards gets 90 seconds to respond to each question, he should have very short 10-15 second responses to the charges, so that he has plenty of time to dive into the positive message.

As I see it, to the flipflopper charge, Edwards can either list Bush flipflops or talk about how Kerry is not stubborn and his positions evolve as he learns.

To the idea that his opposition to Bush's Iraq plan is badfor troop morale, Edwards can say that Bush's Iraqi policy is worse: it's leaving them without proper body armor or armor on humvees, and it's making a bad situation worse.

To the claim that Kerry's antiwar protests were somehow antiAmerican, Edwars should simply say that Kerry came to believe the war was wrong for America and our troops, so he did what he could to bring the troops back home.

To the claim that Kerry sided with the enemy by meeting with them in Paris, Edward should point out that this is consistent with Kerry's later work with John McCain on the POW/MIA issues. Kerry did what he did in the interest of American servicemen.

To the bizarre French claim, Edwards should use that issue to talk about bigotry and civil rights, issues he's very eloquent on.

To the effete claim, which I doubt Cheney would make, obviously Edwards can talk about Cheney and Bush.

As to the UN issue, I read a poll that showed most Americans are anti-UN. If this issue comes up, Edwards could talk about what the war on Iraq would have looked like if we had solid UN backing.

There are other issues, too, that Cheney could bring up, and need to be addressed. They might accuse Kerry of America-bashing, of being a Massachusetts liberal, of being absent from the Senate too often, and so on. (Do a search on Google for, with quote marks, "accuse Kerry of" or "Kerry accused of" for more examples.)

They might also try to paint Kerry's presentation skills in a lesser light, e.g., a smooth-talking liberal. They might try to get people to hear Kerry in a different way at his next debate.

The Republicans will try to use the Edwards-Cheney debate to steal the thunder of the first debate. They will try to make the anti-Kerry claims more negative than Cheney's presentation. I think Edwards needs soundbites to deal with that, and to keep the focus on Kerry's program.