I was actually thinking about skipping the Vice-Presidential Debate last night. I mean, really, how important a factor is the running mate when selecting a presidential candidate? (Except that Who-am-I-why-am-I-here guy that ran with Ross Perot.) Every four years the news media have to remind the short attention-spaned American public what the Vice-President's job is for Pete's Sake! Everyone knows that the President lives in the White House, but does anyone know where the Vice-President and his family live? Does anyone care?
I had firmly decided on watching a remake of Frankenstein on the Hallmark Channel instead when my civic responsibility kicked in and I flipped over to CNN. I'm glad I did. Gwen Ifill of PBS was an excellent moderator who asked some excellent -- and I imagine somewhat uncomfortable -- questions of both candidates. The candidates were really punchy, and I must admit that Cheney comes off a heck of a lot better than his boss. I just don't buy his rhetoric.
As with spinoffs of a popular TV shows, I didn't have high hopes for the debate last night. But I turned out to be wrong. If the first Presidential debate was The Mary Tyler Moore Show, then the vice-Presidential debate was more of a Rhoda than a Phyllis.
No comments:
Post a Comment