"I can't imagine two human beings that are more polar opposites than John Edwards and Dick Cheney," said Alan Schroeder, a professor at Northeastern University and expert on presidential debates. "I see Cheney as this dour character who exists on the dark side, with a sense of suspicion and almost paranoia about him, and then you've got the sunny optimist Edwards, who was very reluctant to criticize his opponents in the primaries, never went negative, and had a message that was serious but not the least bit paranoid. There is so much that's different in their personalities and their politics; their debate could be an unpredictable, volatile mix of elements."

Of course, Democrats hope that the debate will be more than unpredictable and volatile; they hope it will be a chance -- perhaps their best chance -- to put a human face on the differences in policy and attitude that divide Kerry and Bush and to call the administration to account for its actions both at home and abroad.

"The one thing that has not happened with either Bush or Cheney is that neither of them has been directly confronted with their record in a systematic way," Schroeder said. "If Edwards can do that with a prosecutorial approach, it seems that would be a smart thing."

Vice presidential debates can bring memorable moments that cement the reputations of the participants. Bob Dole got so nasty in his 1976 debate with Walter Mondale -- Dole said that 1.6 million Americans had been killed or wounded in "Democrat wars" -- that he was still trying to recover when he debated Bill Clinton for the presidency 20 years later. George H.W. Bush came off as sexist, patronizing and strangely flustered in his 1984 debate with Geraldine Ferraro, and Lloyd Bentsen's "You're no Jack Kennedy" dismissal of Dan Quayle in 1988 was so withering that, four years as vice president notwithstanding, it's what most of us remember about Quayle if we remember him at all.

But for all the highlight-reel material -- don't forget Adm. James Stockdale's weird existential crisis in 1992 -- it would be hard to argue that a vice-presidential debate ever changed the outcome of an election. Says veteran Democratic strategist Paul Maslin: "We all got excited about Lloyd Bentsen, but Bush still won by eight points."

But this year's debate may prove more important than most, Maslin says, because Cheney has played such a central role in the Bush administration. "'Co-president' may be too much, but he's really as close to the throne from a policy standpoint as any vice president has ever been," Maslin said. "The Halliburton story revolves around Cheney, the energy task force revolves around Cheney, the Iraq war revolves around Cheney, and now there's the Cheney-Leahy thing -- the 'Cheney suddenly unplugged' story. With all of that, this debate may be a lot more important than usual."

If the debate takes on greater than usual importance, Edwards seems uniquely suited to the task. An experienced trial lawyer, he's familiar with the skills of cross-examination and knows how to do it in a way that appeals to a jury -- or to voters. When Edwards ran for Senate against Lauch Faircloth, the inarticulate incumbent Republican was so daunted by Edwards' abilities that he refused to debate him at all.

Judging from Edwards' performances in the Democratic presidential primaries, that may have been a good call. While Edwards was not the most contentious of the Democratic debaters, he showed on a few occasions that he could make a telling point when needed -- and sometimes at Kerry's expense.

At the Democratic presidential debate in Milwaukee in February, Kerry was asked whether, having voted to authorize Bush to go to war in Iraq, he bore some responsibility for what eventually happened there. As is his wont, Kerry offered a long, nuanced response that drew on Vietnam, Kosovo, Haiti and the War Powers Act, but he never actually answered the question. Given the chance to follow up, Edwards smiled and said: "That's the longest answer I ever heard to a yes or no question."

As the laughs died down, Edwards turned serious: "The answer to your question is -- of course. We all accept responsibility for what we did."

Recent Stories