| Observers disagreed a lot about the first Presidential debate. Some thought Gore was more presidential while others thought he was smarmy, dishonest and snide. Some though Bush was amiable and low-key while others thought he was awkward, unsure and bumbling. However, no observer could deny that the Vice-Presidential debate was infinitely superior. It was like comparing a junior high level debate with a graduate school level debate. The two candidates in the VP debate came across as civil, intelligent and polite. We didn't have any of Bush's fumbling for words or misstatements. We didn't have any of Gore's obnoxious sighs and grunts, his robotic repetition of liberal cliches, or his totally dishonest anecdotes. Cheney and Lieberman seemed to like each other and both gave intelligent sounding answers to most of the questions. Even if the substance did not differ much from the answers given by the presidential candidates, the style and depth of the answers were superior in almost every instance. Both of them really made the tops of their respective tickets look pretty awful by contrast. |