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The Morning Grind / DayAhead |
The race @ Case
By John Mercurio
CNN Political Unit
 |  Sen. John Edwards and Vice President Dick Cheney face off Tuesday in the only vice presidential debate this year. |
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 VIDEO |
 CNN's Joe Johns on the potentially pivotal vice-presidential debate.
 CNN's Jeff Greenfield on vice-presidential candidates in history.
 CNN's Dan Lothian on Ohio, where the VP debate is set.
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| DEBATE DATES |  Tuesday
Vice presidential debate: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio
Friday
Second presidential debate: Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri
October 13
Third presidential debate: Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona
All debates start at 9 p.m. ET
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CLEVELAND, Ohio (CNN) -- It's Halliburton vs. the trial lawyer, strong and steady vs. fresh and hopeful. Not just another pretty face vs. the son of a millworker. Darth Vader vs. Breck Girl. Youth vs. experience. Charisma vs. gravitas. Outsider vs. insider. Or simply, as the good folks at Case Western Reserve University have plastered all over campus, the "Race at Case."
We can't wait for tonight's opening bell, and we know we're not alone. Two key signs of voter interest are emerging this morning -- polls are all over the place following John Kerry's strong performance last week in Coral Gables, Florida, and deadlines yesterday in key battleground states (including Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio) show dramatic surges in voter registration.
But before you buy the hype that tonight's one and only debate between Dick Cheney and John Edwards will provide the political theater we all desire, remember this: They'll be seated. At a table. With a female moderator (PBS' Gwen Ifill) known for her calm, deliberative style. The seated format, which Bush-Cheney demanded, is credited, or blamed, for the, well, calm, deliberative face-off four years ago between Cheney and Joe Lieberman, which drew the second smallest TV audience in the past 20 years of vice presidential debates. (Which one drew the largest? Answer below.)
The format does allow for a broad range of questions, although both camps said they expect Iraq to dominate the 90-minute debate. With that in mind, Edwards gains new fodder this morning from an unlikely source -- Ambassador Paul Bremer, who's quoted in The Washington Post saying the United States made two big mistakes in Iraq: not deploying enough troops and then not containing the violence and looting immediately after Saddam Hussein's ouster.
Bremer, administrator for the U.S.-led occupation government until the June 28 handover, said he still supports the decision to intervene in Iraq, but he said a lack of adequate forces hampered the occupation and efforts to end the looting early on. "We paid a big price for not stopping it because it established an atmosphere of lawlessness," he said during a speech in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. "We never had enough troops on the ground."
A Bremer aide said his speeches were intended for private audiences and were supposed to have been off the record. But that's a little hard to swallow when the organizers of the event where he spoke were distributing excerpts of his remarks in a news release.
As if on cue, Bush-Cheney airs a new TV ad today hitting Edwards and his trial-lawyer pals on medical malpractice. The ad also makes a direct play for women voters.
"For women's health ... it's now an emergency," the female narrator says. "Our hospitals ... closing maternity wards. OB-GYNs ... forced out. Three-month waits for mammograms. The reason: frivolous lawsuits from out-of-control personal injury trial lawyers. And John Kerry and the liberals in Congress ... stand with those trial lawyers. They've voted to block medical lawsuit reform 10 times. And that's why our good doctors are leaving."
Spin from the sidelines
Meanwhile, some highlights from yesterday's spin alley:
Bush-Cheney raised expectations for Edwards, saying the main reason Kerry chose him as his running mate was because of his oratorical skills. Calling Edwards a "professional debater," Bush strategist Matthew Dowd said the senator "was picked because he was a successful personal injury lawyer that's had an unbelievably good record of winning personal injury awards. This is not a person that was a senator that was good at debates; this was a person who was basically paid to debate in front of juries."
Cheney adviser Mary Matalin called Edwards "the man with the golden tongue" and said he would spend most of his share of the 90 minutes on the attack. But she said, "If he spends all his time attacking us, he's not going to be able do what the Kerry people need to do, which is to say where they want to lead the nation."
Matalin said Cheney's strategy will be to take "the long view," designed to show "where we are in the country and why we need to go forward. Not just go forward with the Bush policies but why Sen. Kerry's policies would be so counterproductive."
On the Kerry side, senior adviser Joe Lockhart didn't even try to play up Cheney's appeal, but instead focused on the strong edge Republicans gained in pre-debate format negotiations. (Indeed, one interesting subplot to the Democrats' overall debate strategy has been their unabashed concession that James Baker got the best of Vernon Jordan in those talks.)
"The White House used a lot of capital and were very adamant on the format of this debate, being very particular to do something that plays to Dick Cheney's strengths, and I assume, shielded some of his weaknesses, whatever those might be, but they insisted on this so-called 'Meet the Press'-type format and used up quite a bit of capital to get that," Lockhart said.
"If we come out of this third debate on the presidential level with three victories and the extra added debate ends up being pivotal in this race, the White House might look at the chair that Dick Cheney's sitting on as the most expensive chair in terms of political capital in the history of American politics."
On goals of the debate, Lockhart said, "If nothing else comes out ..., we would like Dick Cheney to for the first time in the last three years, to at least admit that the world is round and not flat, given the fact that he seems to be the last person on the face of the Earth who still thinks that Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden co-conspired to attack America. Even his boss, or his constitutional boss, has been forced to grudgingly admit that that's not the case."
At a briefing in Cleveland, Kerry strategist Tad Devine claimed, "Dick Cheney's experience and judgment has not been the best for America."
Edwards, who arrived in Cleveland last night from a debate prep session in Chautauqua, New York, attends a midday rally today in suburban Parma. Flying from his home in Jackson, Wyoming, Cheney will arrive this afternoon at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.
Both men will attend post-debate rallies in Cleveland. Edwards heads to the Wade Oval Ellipse at University Circle at 11:15 p.m. ET; Cheney is expected to appear at Gray's Armory at 10:50 p.m.
The running mates
Kerry, for his part, holds a town hall meeting in Tipton, Iowa, where he'll outline his plan to bring down costs, create jobs and cut taxes.
"Not too long ago, the American Dream was within reach of all those willing to work for it," Kerry will say, according to excerpts released by the campaign. "You could find a good job that paid a decent wage. Families were able to save and build a nest egg. When both parents worked, that meant there was more money to buy a house, care for your child and pay for college. And you were able to give your children the same chances you had.
"But today, for too many families, the dream is being taken away by decisions made in Washington. ... When it comes to the struggles facing middle-class families, this president has proven time and time again that he's out of touch, out of ideas and unwilling to change course. He can't see the problems, so he can't solve them."
We don't know whether Kerry will mention Aaron Sissel during his visit, but Tipton is still mourning the loss of one of its own in Iraq. Sissel, a 22-year-old specialist, was killed November 29 when his cargo truck was ambushed in Haditha.
Kerry later travels to Denver, Colorado, where he'll be greeted by local supporters.
Also today, Bush-Cheney airs a new 30-second spot hitting Kerry and those unnamed "liberals in Congress" on taxes. "They voted to raise our gas taxes 10 times," an announcer says. "And raise taxes on Social Security benefits. Higher taxes on middle-class parents 18 times. John Kerry and the liberals in Congress' record on the economy: higher taxes 350 times ... An average of once every three weeks for 20 years ... like clockwork. John Kerry and the liberals in Congress on the economy ... Troubling."
And finally, for those of you still reading ... (drumroll please) the VP debate that has drawn the largest TV audience was the 1984 debate between George H.W. Bush and Geraldine Ferraro, which drew 56.7 million viewers.
