Vader vs Sunshine

I am hoping Cheney just flips out and dives, goes sliding across the little table, grabbing for Edward's throat. I think we will get some true nasty grimaces from him. I'll probably watch it on C-SPAN so I can see the splitscreen. Last time, Bush's facial expressions in reaction to Bush were priceless. Cheney's body language has only gotten more severe over the course of this Administration, and he could seem like a cartoon by the end of this one.

They're both such cutouts, its hard to know which way this debate will unfold. People always say Edwards looks like a little boy. So Make Cheney appear as the evil headmaster rapping shiny schoolboy on the knuckles for his irrepressible good spirit.

It's the first and last time someone will get to challenge the Great Tilted Head before the election. On CNN now, they are talking about Halliburton, mercilessly chasing Cheney on all the shady things he's done.

This debate will be about about confidence and credibility. Cheney will tease the trial lawyer thing, and then Edwards might say, "Yeah, I'd like to ask you some questions," and proceed to launch into a full out attack on how they provided fake intelligence through a ring of shady people in the Pentagon, people that have botched the whole thing, basically incompetent people.

I mean, for the purposes of the election, right now, those neo-cons and other spooky Defense people, those who fabricated the intelligence for the war, and laid down the policies that led to Abu Ghraib, I consider that their motives are horribly evil, as far and deep as anyone's could ever be. But this is very difficult to prove to people.

It's my view that you can convince ANYONE that they are incompetent.

So Edwards should put on a big pouty face and talk about fake intelligence that tricked all the well-meaning senators and congressmen. Edwards can cut to the heart of it by talking about all the shadiness around the Vice President's office, the Scooter Libby investigation, the corrupt deals all around. And how sad it makes him....

But who knows if Edwards will zap him like that. He should really keep in mind that there are more than a hundred million people in this country furious about George W Bush, all of whom would have a few well-chosen words for the most machiavellian character since Nixon to stalk the White House.

This debate will change Cheney's whole image, one way or another. And for that, we will cheer.