WASHINGTON — In a spirited and at times fierce debate, Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John Edwards made it clear that both presidential campaigns believed this election could turn on a single question: Will the race be more about the record of George W. Bush or that of John F. Kerry?
Tuesday's 90-minute encounter was far more intense and confrontational than Cheney's relatively genteel debate with Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Lieberman in 2000. At times it felt like a heavyweight bout, in which each fighter was landing teeth-rattling blows against the other.
But behind the heated rhetorical battle, a clear strategy emerged on each side -- one that signaled the two campaigns' broader goals in the election's final month.
The two men continued the tug of war that is increasingly shaping the campaign's final turn. During August and September, both sides agree, the Bush campaign succeeded in focusing the campaign on whether Kerry was strong and steadfast enough to serve as president; in last week's first presidential debate, Kerry succeeded in at least temporarily shifting the focus back to Bush.
Throughout the debate, Cheney repeatedly targeted Kerry's and Edwards' Senate records, arguing that they invalidated the pair's claims that they can protect the country in the age of global terrorism. Revealing an increasing emphasis for the Bush campaign, Cheney went beyond the familiar charge that Kerry had flip-flopped on issues, repeatedly challenging the Democrat's underlying positions.
Edwards, who may have been even more relentless than Cheney about pressing the offensive, constantly sought to turn the focus back to the record of the Bush-Cheney administration. Signaling an increasing Democratic priority, Edwards was especially dogged in charging that Bush and Cheney had misled the country, especially on Iraq.
Cheney's unstinting attacks on Kerry's voting record -- not only on national security but on taxes and even medical liability reform -- dramatized the priority the Bush campaign placed on moving the spotlight back onto Kerry; that emphasis is likely to be apparent again today when Bush delivers a major speech that sources say will broaden his critique of Kerry's record.
But Edwards cheered Democrats with a sweeping indictment of Bush's record -- not only on Iraq but on domestic issues such as the deficit, job creation and healthcare -- that probably previewed the arguments Kerry intended to stress in the next two presidential debates.
