They're spinning it for Cheney. But they're all talking about how Cheney's performance tonight feeds into the (tru)(my)th that Cheney is really the commander in chief. Fineman and Scarborough just spoke to the fact that Edwards constantly talked about Kerry while Cheney hardly ever mentioned Bush.

Joe Klein thought Edwards did better than expected and that Cheney did well. Aaron Brown thought Cheney won on the foreign policy side and Edwards on the domestic side. Klein disagreed and thought Edwards did better on foreign policy as well.

One of the clips reminded me of the "who's suffering more of the casualties," 90% of "coalition fatalities," as Edwards asserted, or "50% the Iraqis," as Cheney retorted. The exchange there was interesting: Cheney looked like an idiot defending the honor of "our Iraqi allies," as if Americans at this point are really all that comforted that our 1,000+ losses are mitigated by the losses of some loyalty-suspect Iraqi troops when we didn't seem to care about the tens of thousands of Iraqi deaths we caused and are still causing to defeat those same people. And let's not kid ourselves: we're not defending the Iraqi people against some outside aggressor. Iraqis aren't lining up to join the new Iraqi army and police forces -- they're just guys desperate for a job.

Mike Barnicle is sure that American voters see Cheney, despite his "gloom and doom" demeanor, as a serious guy that comforts.

Howard Fineman says Kerry/Edwards are not speaking up for freedom around the world.

Thank God for the chick from the Christian Science Monitor. She makes a case for a "fresh start."

Susan Esterich is defending Kerry's defense voting record against Bob Woodward. He's losing it, he's insulted that she challenged "(his) truthfulness" by challenging BW's attack by reciting Dick Cheney's history regarding those same defense bills.

I think Susan was just challenging his knowledge.