That's not to say that Edwards is the perfect debater. At the Milwaukee debate, he followed his solemn line about the war with a glib, out-of-place knock on Kerry for assuming victory in the primaries before the votes were cast. And Edwards' boyish looks and gosh-golly smile can lead voters to wonder about his gravitas.

Kerry raised doubts about Edwards' experience during the primaries, suggesting -- as the Republican attack machine repeated ad nauseam Tuesday -- that Edwards might still have been in diapers when Kerry was fighting in Vietnam. While Kerry has apparently moved past such concerns, voters might not, especially if Edwards looks too young or unprepared in debate with Cheney.

While many Democrats think of Cheney as the dark prince of neocon dreams, the grim little man behind the curtain at the White House, the Democrats' vilification of the vice president can lead to false confidence. Just as Kerry did Tuesday, Democrats have talked excitedly for weeks about the day Edwards goes up against Cheney. Will Marshall of the centrist Progressive Policy Institute warned Tuesday against too much optimism.

"Cheney comes off almost like a candid CEO rather than a politician talking to you," said Marshall, who watched the vice president calmly defeat his preferred candidate, Joe Lieberman, in a sleepy debate four years ago. "Cheney is self-effacing in the right places, but kind of steely, ready with some smooth comebacks and barbs. He'll be good, and we shouldn't let the fact that Cheney has become a bugaboo to many Democrats let us underestimate him. He will be the voice of experience, worldly wise, quietly shaking his head, and he will do everything he can to portray Edwards as a callow youth who doesn't understand how the world works."

The experience card plays two ways, however. It's great to tout your experience in office, but it only works if voters think you've done a good job. With Bush's approval ratings in the tank, with Iraq still a mess and new jobless numbers suggesting that the economic recovery isn't all that the White House might like it to be, Cheney's ability to trump Edwards on record and experience may be limited. "Cheney may have more experience than Edwards, and of course Bush does too at this point," said Ruy Teixeira, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and the Center for American Progress. "That all would have been great if they had never invaded Iraq and this was a year after Sept. 11 and they were still riding high. Cheney could say, 'Look at this young pup,' and 'How do you know what you're talking about.' But that time has passed."

Teixeira says the only way Edwards can lose to Cheney is if he defers to him too much, like Lieberman did four years ago, or if he appears intimidated by him. "He should go right after them," Teixeira said. "Cheney is less popular than he used to be, and his unfavorables have gone up dramatically over the last four months, especially among independents."

Edwards can score points, Democrats say, by pushing Cheney to explain his role in the administration. Why was Cheney, not Bush, giving an order to shoot down airplanes on Sept. 11? Why is he still insisting that Saddam Hussein had a meaningful relationship with al-Qaida? Why did everything Cheney predicted about Iraq -- and especially that part about being greeted as liberators -- turn out so wrong?

And closer to Edwards' sweet spot, the North Carolina senator can land blows on domestic policy as well. Why won't Cheney say whom he met with in developing the administration's energy policy? How are tax cuts for the rich the administration's "due"?

"Edwards' substantive message in the campaign will be talking about crony capitalism and 'two Americas' and who's getting rich and who's not," Teixeira said. "I can't think of anyone better to bring this up with than Dick Cheney."

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