Surely you must have watched the Vice Presidential debate last night.  I departed from my usual slumber at that time to follow it to the end. I found that the two candidates, one a sitting Vice President, Richard Cheney, and one a sitting Senator, John Edwards, agreed to disagree just about everything. It was heartening to witness the freedom with which each spoke out about the principles and “facts” they represented.

I think, from a judging standpoint, that the two debaters, very different in style and appearance, came out in a dead heat.  This may be the same kind of result we can expect from the Presidential election in November. They both agreed that while we were at war in Iraq that we would have to stay the course. They disagreed over the necessity to go into that war and certainly were at opposite ends of the argument that the apparatus of bin Laden was not in Iraq and Saddam Hussein did NOT attack the U.S.  This is a bit complicated but much rests on how you perceive the facts that Senator Edwards kept trying to get the Vice President to deal with.

I feel heartened that the two moderators I have seen in the last two debates were so good. The debates were held in universities and the setting could not have been better except that each side had different ideas about audience participation. There was no noise, no catcalling and no questions shouted out from the viewers either in the auditorium or at home in front of the television – although I have no proof of the latter. There was no excitement either.

It was sad that both skirted around issues having to do with abortion and stem-cell research. They touched on the homosexual equality issue because of the forthrightness of VP Cheney in acknowledging his daughter.  But it was strange that the Vice President could come out and fully support the Marriage Amendment effort of the Republicans that would keep his daughter in second class status.

Actually, the debate upped the stakes of this election by our witnessing the sharpening of the attacks each side mounted against the other.  In reality, this campaign has all the earmarks of a military battle with all the supporting troops going out to do damage to the other side before and after each debate and certainly to do as much mayhem against the other side before election day.

Such is democracy. It is the best system yet devised but is so corrupted by corrupt partisans that the theory (if it is still taught in the schools) is quite different than practice. I feel that if you can fool some of the people some of the time that is all that is necessary for the wrong person (s) to win elections.