Also In This Issue Cover Story: The Main Event

By Carl M. Cannon, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Friday, Sept. 24, 2004

It's a moment seared into the mind of every political junkie old enough to have heard it.

"Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy," Lloyd Bentsen said, his expression stiffening even as he tightened the verbal vise around Dan Quayle's neck. "Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."

Democrats still chortle at the memory. Republicans wince. But deconstruct Bentsen's put-down: Quayle's point -- that he was seeking the vice presidency at an older age than JFK sought the presidency -- was true. Bentsen and Kennedy were not really friends, and they served only briefly together in the House. As rhetoric, Bentsen's zinger was barely above name-calling.

More to the point, it had no bearing whatsoever on the 1988 election.

The Republican ticket of George H.W. Bush and Quayle defeated Michael Dukakis and Bentsen by 7 million votes and 315 electoral votes -- numbers worth remembering before the October 5 debate between Dick Cheney and John Edwards in Cleveland.

"I can't think of an election in which the vice presidential debate swayed the vote," recalls GOP pollster Dick Wirthlin, who helped prepare Ronald Reagan for debates starting in 1974. "But they are entertaining."

They may not move the entire ticket, but they can affect the fortunes of the No. 2 picks. Partly because of Bentsen's jibe, Quayle's political future was compromised before he took office as vice president. Al Gore's performances against Quayle in 1992 and Jack Kemp in 1996 bolstered his reputation. Now, win or lose in November, Edwards's prospects as a Democratic presidential candidate are in the balance as he faces Cheney.

"It will be the most-watched VP debate ever!" gushes former Rep. Tom Downey, D-N.Y., who helped Al Gore prepare for debates. "You've got Darth Vader, who is a formidable debater. If you don't bring your 'A' game, he's going to kill you."

Lord Vader is being played in Edwards's pre-debate by Democratic lawyer and literary agent Bob Barnett. Who is playing Edwards in the Cheney rehearsal? "I heard it was Eddie Munster," quipped one Bush campaign aide. "But I'll check." Turns out it's Rep. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who played Joe Lieberman in 2000.

Last time, according to Democratic mythology, Cheney ate Lieberman's lunch. This is not fair to Lieberman, and it's inaccurate. The story line that emerged after their debate was actually more subversive -- to both parties: It was that each ticket was upside down.

Democrats seem in awe of Cheney. "He is very knowledgeable and a smart man," said Downey, who debated Cheney for funds on the rubber-chicken circuit when both were in the House. "He will say anything, anything.... That's always a problem, because you've got to call him on it, and that distracts from your message."

There is pressure on Cheney, too, as a full partner in the record of the last four years, and Democrats have used his past stewardship of Halliburton as evidence of profiteering in Iraq. But Cheney's resume is impressive, and Edwards has only those five years in the Senate. Edwards's lack of knowledge about government was apparent in his 1998 debut debate with fellow North Carolina Democrat D.G. Martin -- and this year while debating the other Democratic contenders.

Edwards all but threw in the towel when questioned in a January debate about the Defense of Marriage Act, finally just asserting that he wasn't yet in Congress when it passed. "I don't claim to be an expert on this," he added.

It was this image that led former Bush speechwriter David Frum to predict that Edwards's double-digit poll advantage over Cheney would evaporate "in the first 15 seconds" of their debate.

Martin, reached in Chapel Hill, N.C., has a different take. "We debated in a one-on-one conference around a table with editorial-page editors," Martin recalls. "I assumed Edwards would be easy pickings, because he didn't know the issues. Afterward, I asked the editorial writers, who were my friends, who won, and they said, 'Oh, y'all were both good.' In the South, that means, 'You stunk, and he was good.' What my friends saw was this natural ability Edwards has to frame complicated issues in simple terms, and to do it passionately in a way that makes the issues relate to real people."

So Edwards's talents may trump Cheney's experience? "If he can beat me," Martin quipped, "he can sure beat Dick Cheney."

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