I believe tonight you saw from Vice President Dick Cheney what President George W. Bush could not do in his first debate: stay calm and collected while staying on message. No doubt, Bush stayed on message in his debate, but he lost in style points with his constant slouching, his silly smirk, and his slight temper and ultimately lost the debate and his precious lead in the polls to John Kerry.

But not only did Cheney stay on message as well, he was calm in the face of an energetic John Edwards, who like a schoolyard bully, tried to pick a fight on numerous issues but was ultimately frustrated by his failure to break Cheney. Even still, Cheney started spewing facts back at him, which for some odd reason, sounded weird coming from a Bush-Cheney ticket. Frustration though came out constantly when Edwards would start making point after point and Cheney wouldn't say too much in response or he would begin by saying, where do I begin?

I found it a little disturbing that Edwards referred to himself as John Edwards at a couple of points in the debate. He got a little tongue-tied too but played on his strength well, which is his charisma and good looks to get people to listen to his message.

In the end, both did really well in articulating the positions set forth by their bosses, but Republicans will be relieved by the performance by their man that will keep them going in the near future, at least until Friday when President Bush must go back on stage for another debate.