Terence Hunt
Cheney-Edwards debate takes on increased importance
Mon Oct 4, 2004 18:58
64.140.158.137


The evil Dick Cheney
... and Cheney are from the same state The presidential electoral votes from Texas are
unconstitutional they cannot vote for them except one vote

http://www.apfn.org/apfn/dcheney.htm


Posted on Mon, Oct. 04, 2004
Cheney-Edwards debate takes on increased importance
TERENCE HUNT
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Usually just a campaign sideshow, this year's vice presidential debate has taken on new life as a high-stakes showdown in a tightening presidential race. Dick Cheney's mission is to slow John Kerry's sudden momentum, while John Edwards' assignment is to feed doubts about President Bush's handling of Iraq and the economy.

Four weeks before the election, both sides see Tuesday night's face-off as an important milestone in a race in which neither side can afford a mistake.

"Everything that happens is important," said Bush-Cheney communications director Nicolle Devenish.

Anxious for a confidence boost, the White House is counting on Cheney to deliver a solid, steady performance to reassure Republicans shaken by Bush's scowling appearance in last week's leadoff debate with Kerry. The vice president is expected to paint Kerry and Edwards as lacking the resolve to lead the war against terror and keep Americans safe.

Democrats, meanwhile, are exuberant about Kerry's first debate and hope Edwards can keep the ball rolling by drawing on the same skills he used as a trial lawyer to win multimillion dollar settlements from juries. Edwards is expected to portray Cheney as the architect of a misguided Iraq policy that was based on the erroneous belief that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Edwards also is expected to criticize Cheney, the former chief executive of Halliburton, as a symbol of corporate greed.

Cheney and Edwards are viewed favorably by about half of all voters, but Cheney has more negative ratings, a Pew Research Center poll suggests. About four in 10 voters view Cheney unfavorably; three in 10 see Edwards that way.

Typically, vice presidential debates are tangential events with little impact or voter interest. After all, the race is not about No. 2 but the person at the top of the ticket. Even in the vice presidential debate, the real focus is Bush and Kerry, not Cheney and Edwards.

Speaking for Cheney, senior adviser Mary Matalin said, "He's going to make the arguments that Bush made. He's not breaking away from where the president is."

Four years ago, 46.5 million people watched the first presidential debate between Bush and Al Gore, but then the viewership plummeted to 28.5 million for the vice presidential encounter between Cheney and Sen. Joe Lieberman. This year, both sides contend viewers will tune in because of the high stakes.

"In a race that's going to be decided by a few points, you can't break it open," said Bush's chief political strategist, Matthew Dowd. "But moments like the vice presidential debate will matter a lot because ... this is somebody that could step into the office of the presidency at a moment's notice."

Just as important, Dowd said, the goal is to motivate partisans and seek the support of undecided and wavering voters. "A very small, small number of persuadables," he said.

While voters who watched the first presidential debate believed by two-to-one that Kerry did better, the confrontation did not produce a big shift in opinions of the candidates, according to a Pew poll released Monday. Bush holds a 48 percent to 41 percent lead over Kerry among all voters; when the sample is narrowed to likely voters, Bush holds a more modest 49 percent to 44 percent edge.

Because of his extraordinary influence in Bush's administration, Cheney is an inviting target for the Democrats.

"Dick Cheney is a symbol of all the wrong choices this administration has made," said Bruce Reed, a Kerry supporter and former domestic policy adviser in the Clinton administration. Americans are paying more money for things like health care, gasoline and college, and the economy has lost a million jobs, Reed said. Cheney "is the ultimate insider. He's been helping administrations fail now for 30 years."

For his part, the vice president will argue that Kerry is a flip-flopping liberal who can't be entrusted with the nation's security. "Everybody knows that he's taken 10 or 11 or 12 different stands on Iraq and he shifts whichever way the wind blows," said Dowd.

Bush raised the stakes in that argument Monday by telling an Iowa audience that Kerry's policies "are dangerous for world peace. If they were implemented they would make this world not more peaceful, but more dangerous."

Kerry's camp looks at the violence and bloodshed in Iraq, with more than 1,000 U.S. soldiers killed, and asks what the administration's plan is to win the war.

"Can Dick Cheney honestly look the American people in the eye and say that he and President Bush and the rest of the administration would have done absolutely nothing differently?" asked Susan Rice, a foreign policy adviser to Kerry-Edwards.

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EDITOR'S NOTE - Terence Hunt has covered the White House for The Associated Press since the Reagan presidency.
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UPDATES:
Results 1 - 10 of about 3,450 for Cheney Edwards debate.



John Edwards makes big business squirm
... the AFL-CIO, is a keen supporter of the Kerry-Edwards ticket ... and leadership record of George Bush and (Vice President) Dick Cheney,"
CLICK:

... Dr. Lynne V. Cheney http://www.apfn.org/apfn/cheney.htm. ... to restore 'truth' to presidency Kerry and Edwards said they ... With debate set to begin next week on the ...

http://www.apfn.org/APFN/ELECTION_2004.HTM

The Evil Dick Cheney
From 1997 through 2000, Cheney's Halliburton sold $73 million worth of oil equipment and services to Iraq through subsidiaries Dresser-Rand and Ingersoll Dresser Pump Co. to help rebuild Iraq's Gulf War-damaged infrastructure. That was more business than any other U.S. company, and Cheney later lied about his Iraqi connection to media types like Sam Donaldson.
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/dcheney.htm

Vice President Dick Cheney thought it would be a good idea for the Navy to pay his $186,000 home electric bill http://www.harpers.org/WeeklyReview2001-07-24.html#20030929233555-9599207697

Vice President Dick Cheney, who also has close ties to Enron, was still hiding out somewhere. »[ http://www.harpers.org/Enron.html#20030929235325-1805214363

Vice President Dick Cheney, citing executive privilege, was still refusing to release the records of his five meetings with Enron executives to discuss energy policy. People were beginning to use the word “cover-up.” http://www.harpers.org/Enron.html#20030929235325-1805214363

A former Enron executive who resigned because of the company's questionable financial practices was found dead in his car with a bullet in the brain, apparently self-inflicted. http://www.harpers.org/WeeklyReview2002-01-29.html#20030929235432-3329290793

The General Accounting Office said it would file suit to force Vice President Dick Cheney to turn over records of his meetings with Enron officials, with whom he met five times to discuss energy policy. http://www.harpers.org/WeeklyReview2002-02-05.html#20030929235434-1413310934

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers revealed that Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, Vice President Dick Cheney's old company, has received more than $1.7 billion in military contracts in Iraq, far more than was previously known. It was noted that the practice of outsourcing logistical operations to private contractors was pioneered by Cheney during the first Gulf War when he was secretary of defense. Brown and Root won the first such contract, and Cheney was hired as CEO of Halliburton soon afterward. http://www.harpers.org/DickCheney.html#20030902535099722320

Vice President Dick Cheney defended Halliburton, which continues to pay him a salary, from what he said were "desperate attacks" by opponents of the Bush Administration. "They're rendering great service," he said. "They do it because they're good at it, because they won the contract to do it. And frankly the company takes a certain amount of pride in rendering this kind of service to U.S. military forces."» http://www.harpers.org/Halliburton.html#20040126-759242995285

Halliburton, which received most of its Iraq contracts by administrative fiat rather than through a competitive bidding process, admitted that its employees in Iraq have accepted $6.3 million in kickbacks http://www.harpers.org/Corruption.html#20040126-057660457246

[PDF] 1 Dick Cheney and Halliburton: A Chronology
http://www.citizenworks.org/corp/warcontracts/cheney-halliburton.pdf

June 24, 2004
Dick Advice
CNN is reporting that on the floor of the Senate yesterday, Dick Cheney told Sen. Pat Leahy, "Go fuck yourself." We agree! Go fuck yourself -- while it's still legal!
UPDATE: Speaking of sodomy. . . Wonkette operatives tell us that the fighting words sprang from an exchange in which Cheney told Leahy he didn't like what Leahy had been saying about Halliburton, to which Leahy replied that he didn't like Cheney calling him a bad Catholic. So you'd see how "Go fuck yourself" is the only appropriate response.
http://www.wonkette.com/archives/dick-advice-016782.php
Sources: Cheney curses senator over Halliburton criticism
In response to Cheney, Leahy reminded Cheney that the vice president had once accused him of being a bad Catholic, to which Cheney replied either "f--- off" or "go f--- yourself."
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/24/cheney.leahy/

SCRATCHING THE SURFACE
Dr. Lynne V. Cheney
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/cheney.htm

Bush Blows Debate: Talks to Rove in Earpiece! — John Reynolds, Mon Oct 4 19:33