Posted on 10/06/2004 3:55:20 PM PDT by fivetoes
As I watched the VP debates last night I saw a small clip that I told my wife would be all over FreeRepublic today, but I guess I was wrong.
There was a moment near the end of the debate where Edwards admitted to breaking the rules, not once but twice in a matter of seconds. He even smiled as he said it as if rules meant nothing to him.
Here is the transcript.
IFILL: Mr. Vice President, picking up on that, you both just sang the praises of the tops of your ticket.
Without mentioning them by name at all, explain to us why you are different from your opponent...
EDWARDS: Mr. Vice President, we were attacked. But we weren't attacked by Saddam Hussein. And one thing that John Kerry and I would agree with you about is that it is...
IFILL: You just used John Kerry's name.
EDWARDS: Oh, I'm sorry. I broke the rule.
One thing that we agree about is the need to be offensive in going after terrorists.
The reality is that the best defense is a good offense, which means leading -- America returning to its proud tradition of the last 75 years, of once again leading strong coalitions so we can get at these terrorist cells where they are, before they can do damage to us and to the American people.
John Kerry made clear on Thursday night that -- I'm sorry, I broke the rules. We made clear -- we made clear on Thursday night that we will do that, and we will do it aggressively.
Trust me, don't bother. It's a silly little thing. If Republicans play it up, they'll look stupid and petty.
Edwards did a good enough job looking like a fool on his own. He doesn't need our help.
It was a trivial rule about not mentioning the prez nominees name; I don't even know why the rule existed, it was like a game show gimmick. There's no point wasting time on this; it is a non-story.
Get a TV video card for your computer ATI makes great ones. Record TV directly to your hard drive. I recorded the whole thing and will cut it into 700MB chunks to burn on CD probably Friday.
I couldn't for the life of me understand why Gwen put that "Without mentioning them by name at all" proviso on the question. It came across as a vacuous part of the question.
I had the impression that both times Edwards mentioned Kerry's name it was not a deliberate attempt to break the rules but a genuine mistake to a rule that suddenly was sprung on them by the moderator for that one question. The second time Edwards made the mistake and stopped himself, he almost seemed to be mocking the moderator by saying something like, "oh I broke the rule again".
In my opinion, it seemed more like a gimmick imposed by the moderator than a genuine attempt to have a question answered. Even when Cheney answered the question, he was clearly referring to Bush. It was more of a game of playing linguistic games with the moderator rather than playing by the rules, in my opinion.
A more substantial critique of Edwards was that he repeatedly went back to earlier questions, thus giving himself more than the allotted time. But I think that's relatively trivial too, and I wouldn't make a big deal out of it.
It was a pointless rule, kind of like she was making a game out of it, i.e., "Let's see if you can answer a question without mentioning the top of the ticket. Whoever can do it will win a frisbee."
My favorite part was when Edwards turned and pointed at Cheney, and like a whiney nine year old said, "well HE did it too" or something like that. Wish I could remember what was said. It was something about education I think.
Boy, did he look childish!
"....America returning to its proud tradition of the last 75 years, of once again leading strong coalitions..."
Glad you reminded me, of the 75 years. What in the world was the Boy Wonder thinking about?
1928
Kellogg-Briand Pact, outlawing war, signed in Paris by 65 nations. Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin. Richard E. Byrd starts expedition to Antarctic; returns in 1930. Anthropologist Margaret Mead publishes Coming of Age in Samoa. Oxford English Dictionary published after 44 years of research.
1929
Trotsky expelled from USSR Lateran Treaty establishes independent Vatican City. In U.S., stock market prices collapse, with U.S. securities losing $26 billion—first phase of Depression and world economic crisis. St. Valentine's Day gangland massacre in Chicago. Edwin Powell Hubble proposes theory of expanding universe.
We caught that too, but I never thought of it as a deliberate violation of the question rules. Rather, it was indicative that he was a lightweight who could not think independently or is being kept on a short lease. In other words, he is not his own man. To me that says a lot about his lack of qualification as VP.
Video of the debate here:
http://www.c-span.org/2004vote/debates.asp?Cat=Current_Event&Code=PresVP_04&ShowVidNum=10&Rot_Cat_CD=PresVP_04&Rot_HT=206&Rot_WD=&ShowVidDays=100&ShowVidDesc=&ArchiveDays=365
Well the spin on this should have been Edwards got so flustered by Cheney that he couldn't even remember the rules... FLUSTERED response...
He's a DUmbocrat, they don't have "rules" they just make them for the rest of us.
While we're making requests...
Does anyone know of a fairly close-up photo of Kerry
with that dopey grin, showing off his whitened teeth
during the debate?
I didn't take it as a rule but as a cleverly formed question intended to make the person answering not deliver prepared comments but think on their feet. Cheney passed Edwards failed.
I believe you are right. It would be silly to have a debate with a rule that you can't mention your running mate. Gwin was just gimicking up the question.
I believe, however, it is equally silly to have a debate where the speakers cannot use notes or briefs. Hopefully, they aren't making every decision without any reference material. Personally, I think they should have their staffs with them, and be allowed to consult. After all, that is what Presidents do.
It was not a big deal and was not an intentional "breaking of the rules".
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