Both sides claim victory in vice-presidential debate

8.00am - By ANDREW BUNCOMBE in Cleveland



The battle between Democrats and Republicans will be cranked up with a showdown between George Bush and John Kerry on Saturday after both sides claimed victory in the often personal and scathing vice presidential debate.

Mr Kerry and President Bush are set to meet in St Louis, Missouri, for the second of three televised debates with polls showing the two men effectively tied - both in the crucial battleground state of Missouri as well as across the nation.

After Mr Bush's poor performance in the first presidential debate last week in Miami, Republicans received some heart from yesterday's rough and tumble encounter between the president's deputy, Dick Cheney, and Mr Kerry's running mate, John Edwards in Cleveland, Ohio.

Both sides claimed victory in the debate, which saw the vastly experienced and often grumpy Mr Cheney matched by the more vigorous and charismatic, yet less experienced, Mr Edwards. But instant polls conducted by US news organisations were divided, reflecting the view of most pundits who reckoned the very different pair were fairly evenly matched.

Certainly, neither delivered any sort of knock-out blow. Much of the debate focussed on national security and the war on Iraq with Mr Edwards, 51, accusing Mr Cheney, 63, of repeatedly misleading the country over the alleged involvement of Saddam Hussein in the attacks of September 11.

"You are still not being straight with the American people," declared Mr Edwards, sounding more forceful than usual, as Mr Cheney sat just a few feet away.

"Mr. Vice President, there is no connection between the attacks of September 11th and Saddam Hussein. The 9-11 Commission has said it. Your own Secretary of State has said it. And you've gone around the country suggesting that there is some connection. There is not."

Mr Cheney, one of the Bush administration's most conservative ideologues and probably the most powerful vice-president in history, was ready to defend himself.

Though he started the debate looking nervous and unsettled, he gradually settled and started to fight back - even if he made a number of statements that were quickly shown afterwards to be false.

[At one point he claimed he had never before met Mr Edwards - an attack on the North Carolina's Senator allegedly poor attendance record in Washington - though aides were quickly able to find a photograph of the pair taken in 2001.]

Conservatives said that at the very least Mr Cheney had applied the brakes to the momentum the Democrats had gathered after Mr Bush's agitated and shallow performance last week in Florida.

Yet for all the puffery and spin, it was never likely that this debate would be hugely important. Vice presidential debates are usually flat - Lloyd Bentsen's memorable "Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy" putdown of Dan Quayle in the 1988 campaign is among the exceptions -rarely play an important role in deciding the outcome of the campaign.

This time was no different and both debaters avoided the potential pitfalls that could have provided the opposition with a clear victory.

Mr Edwards sounded firm and knowledgeable on foreign affairs - an area in which his lack of experience has been attacked by Republicans - and Mr Cheney, while retaining something of the manner of an old and rather mangy dog being nipped at by a puppy, avoided appearing too grumpy and bad-tempered.

Instead the candidates did what was required to give their respective running mates a solid platform on which to build during their next debate.

For his part Mr Cheney made sure to point out Mr Kerry's perceived confused and shifting position on Iraq - a point Mr Bush failed to make effectively last week.

"You're not credible on Iraq because of the enormous inconsistencies that John Kerry and you have cited time after time after time during the course of the campaign," Mr Cheney said to Mr Edwards.

"Whatever the political pressures of the moment requires, that's where you're at."

In turn Mr Edwards continued to shore up Mr Kerry's claim to be able to protect the American people against the threat of terrorism. He also pushed home the argument that the war in Iraq - which has cost the lives of more than 1,000 US troops and thousands of Iraqi civilians - was unnecessary, based on false intelligence and diverted resources from the hunt for al Qaeda.

"We were attacked by al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. We went into Afghanistan and very quickly the administration made a decision to divert attention from that and instead began to plan for the invasion of Iraq. And these connections -- I want the American people to hear this very clearly, listen carefully to what the vice-president is saying -- because there is no connection between Saddam Hussein and the attacks of September 11th - period."

After the debate, Mr Cheney and Mr Edwards set off independently to continue campaigning in Florida, leaving voters across Ohio - and the rest of the nation - to ponder their performance.

As he made his way to his office in Cleveland on Wednesday morning, Robert Simon, 51, a college professor at Levin College of Urban Affairs and one of that apparently very rare species - an undecided voter - claimed the debate had not shifted the dynamic of the contest.

"They were both good. They were both solid," said Mr Simons, who said he will wait for the conclusion of all the presidential debates before deciding how to vote.

"I think it was a draw. Last night did not change a thing."

- INDEPENDENT

Herald Feature: US Election

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