A True Battle

John Edwards was solid, landed some key points strongly, but was not able to hit anything out of the park. Darth Cheney was his usual, sonorous, sharp, attacking self. He was solid, no doubt about it, but again, was unable to hit anything out of the park.

But I think that with the large audience that this debate was supposed to draw, there are now more people who have seen the contrast between these two men. And that difference was most starkly drawn in the closing statements.

John Edwards closed with hope and faith in America and Americans. He talked of his father bettering himself and his family about his ability to go to college as the first in his family. Edwards reminded people of how great we can be if we only draw together Americans and the world.

Dick Cheney used the tool that he and his sock puppet, G.W., have used for the past 3 1/2 years; fear. His closing statement was a coldly calculated appeal to the fear in people, which they've done nothing to allay since 9/11 while always implying that the next attack is just around the corner.

I hope that the swayables and the undecideds saw that as clearly as I did. Yes, on November 2 we have a choice: we can choose four more years of fear and the unknown, or we can choose hope.