J$P Instant Transcript! Pat Caddell with instant reaction to the Veep Debate.

From Hannity and Colmes, October 5 2004:

ALAN COLMES [FOX NEWS]: Joining us now from Los Angeles, former Democratic strategist Pat Caddell. Pat, from someone outside Case Western tonight, how did it look to you? What’s your take on it?

PAT CADDELL [DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST]: Well, I was a little disappointed. I popped the popcorn and popped the beer, ready to watch these two guys clobber each other, and they really didn’t. It was a pretty civil debate. But, I thought the Edwards started to win the first two questions, but after that I thought Cheney sort of ran away with it. It was, for what they’re worth, what these debates are worth, I thought Cheney probably got the upper hand, but the Vice-President--

COLMES: Why do you think he ran away with it? I didn’t see that, I thought it was pretty even.

CADDELL: Oh I thought he had the upper hand. The same as it was Thursday night in the context, that I thought Thursday night was pretty even, and I thought Kerry had the upper hand. And I thought that tonight, I thought that Cheney, and I’ll tell you why. Mainly because of two things, Alan, which the President didn’t do. One was, Cheney kept us on the war on terror, not about Iraq. Every time it was about Iraq, it was back to the war on terror, which is much stronger ground for them. Number two, I thought that he finally mentioned Kerry’s record, which Bush, after spending 100 million dollars, didn’t say a word about Thursday night. So--

COLMES: But Pat, I really think that John Edwards did a good job of holding Cheney’s feet to the fire about a war in Iraq after we were attacked by Al Qaeda from Afghanistan. That came up many times--

CADDELL: Yeah, I think that’s a very effective point; I think that they made it before. However, I thought that frankly, to be honest about it, I thought that Cheney really hit him on the, again, about he went after the inconsistency thing. And both of them are strong arguments; they happen to move different ways with the electorate. You know--

COLMES: I think the inconsistency--

CADDELL: Also, you’ve got to hand it to Cheney. You’ve got to hand it to Cheney, Alan, come on. He had a couple of better lines in there. Even if they were unfair, I mean, the one about I only met you today was devastating.

COLMES: Well we just defused that with Sen Durbin, we had Sen Dick Durbin here--

CADDELL: Well, it was a cheap--

COLMES: --who said of course if he only goes to the Republican luncheon on Tuesdays, he’s not going to meet the Democratic Senators. I think that that was easily rebuked.

CADDELL: Well Alan, I’m admitting, I’m saying it probably was a cheap shot. I’m just saying it was an effective cheap shot, that’s all. The other thing was when he went up to him about, when he went on the for instance even on the Israeli thing, each time Cheney kept bringing it back to the war on terror. I think if we go through the transcript we’ll find that. They talk about Israel, it brings it back to the war on terror, back to Saddam Hussein. It was smart doing this; what the President didn’t do Thursday night, that’s why the President ended up speaking twice as much on Iraq which is hardly as strong a ground as the war on terror.

COLMES: By the way we are seeing live pictures from an Edwards rally as we speak. I thought the Vice-President contradicted himself again tonight--

CADDELL: Well that wouldn’t be a surprise, would it?

COLMES: --at one point he says I never said there was a link between Saddam and 9/11, and he contradicted himself again talking about Al Qaeda which we know is subtext for basically saying 9/11 and Al Qaeda do have a link. So again I think they call Kerry and Edwards flip-floppers; he did it himself in tonight’s debate.

CADDELL: Well, these are debates. So did Edwards, for that matter. I mean, I’m just sitting back watching it as entertainment; I was a little disappointed, but that’s my reading on it. I suspect the public feels the same way.

SEAN HANNITY [FOX NEWS]: Hey Pat, good to see you. Sean Hannity here.

CADDELL: Hi, Sean.

HANNITY: I agree with you. I think the Vice-President is brilliant and he won on style and substance tonight. And I think he just outclassed Edwards on a lot of areas. I think, there’s a line Edwards used in his closing statement, “America’s bright light is flickering”. That seems so pessimistic and dark, it reminded me of Jimmy Carter. Was that a mistake?

CADDELL: I wouldn’t have used it for a closing. If that’s the theme you want to develop, you need to develop that up top, not at the bottom. I wouldn’t leave that hanging.

HANNITY: What did you think about the line about if you can’t stand up to Dean, how are you going to stand up to Al Qaeda?

CADDELL: Well, that was the other line. The two lines I thought Cheney was most effective with--actually there were three: one was that, one was the what we just talked about about I didn’t meet you till tonight, which may have been a cheap shot but as I said an effective cheap shot, and the other one was about the fact that there’s fewer suicide bombers in Israel now because they’re not being paid by Saddam Hussein, which kind of caught me off guard. I thought, that’s a good argument. I’m just judging on arguments, guys; that’s what I do.

HANNITY: Yeah.

CADDELL: The third one was the one about the Howard Dean thing was devastating, I thought.

HANNITY: I thought so too. And also consistency is not a line I’d use about John Kerry. But he--

CADDELL: Well that was to that point.

HANNITY: You and I see this the same way. I was disappointed that in the 90-minute debate last Thursday, there was so much ammunition that was left on the table, about this inconsistency which is utterly incoherent. A 20-plus year record of weakness on intelligence and defense, and tonight those points were hammered home.

CADDELL: Well, you know, Sean, whether it’s true or not, the fact is they had spent 100 million dollars making that point to the American public.

HANNITY: That’s true.

CADDELL: The President never mentioned it once. And he had plenty of opportunities. He didn’t ask--

HANNITY: I think that’s how I described it. I thought it was a missed opportunity. One of the things, we’re 28 days out of an election, Pat.

CADDELL: Right.

HANNITY: You’re a long political observer. How is it John Kerry has never had to explain the nuclear freeze? The vote against the death penalty for terrorists who kill Americans?

CADDELL: Well, it’s not going to come up in the Democratic primaries, because most Democrats tend to favor what he did. And the Republicans frankly, as they did not do in the debate, and even tonight didn’t do it, they haven’t raised those points. I mean, they’ve raised it in the advertising. But there’s so much on the table right now, but as I keep saying, the most important key I think to it, was in the last debate, twice as much time was spent on Iraq directly as was on the war on terrorism. This debate I bet you it’s the reverse.

HANNITY: Yeah. I think you’re right. I also think, while a lot of Democrats are saying that they think there’s a decided advantage on economic issues, with a million--

CADDELL: I don’t think they ever got there tonight.

HANNITY: What’s that?

CADDELL: We never got there tonight. This debate was basically over the first half.

HANNITY: Yeah, I thought so.

CADDELL: I think the energy level, the energy level, the foreign policy stuff is so dominating--

HANNITY: I agree; I agree.

CADDELL: --not that it should be, it’s just so dominating that you kind of felt the air coming out of the debate at the second half.

HANNITY: I almost agree with you.

COLMES: Pat, we thank you very much for giving us your view from across the country. Thanks so much for being with us tonight.

CADDELL: Back to popcorn.

HANNITY: Thanks, Pat.