trapped on cross...
An interesting take:
"As a trial lawyer, Edwards learned not to allow a witness to explain. Had he challenged Cheney on each lie, Cheney could have explained them away. A better trial tactic, I am not sure about a debate, is to let the falsehood sit there but point it out later to the jury or the judge. By not letting Cheney explain away the lies, he is stuck with them and the public will act as the jury".
There were several times during the VP debate where I got kind of pissed off that Edwards didn't forcefully respond. I listened to the first part in my car and was actually talking outloud to myself what i wanted him to say. I guess that's why i'm not a lawyer! On reflection, it really was handled brilliantly. Cheney is stuck in a catch-22 with this stuff. If he comes out to say "oops, i made a little mistake, i forgot, etc" then it opens up the questions on all the other things he lied about. If he doesn't say anything, the media holds on to the story with the juicy pictures...
"As a trial lawyer, Edwards learned not to allow a witness to explain. Had he challenged Cheney on each lie, Cheney could have explained them away. A better trial tactic, I am not sure about a debate, is to let the falsehood sit there but point it out later to the jury or the judge. By not letting Cheney explain away the lies, he is stuck with them and the public will act as the jury".
There were several times during the VP debate where I got kind of pissed off that Edwards didn't forcefully respond. I listened to the first part in my car and was actually talking outloud to myself what i wanted him to say. I guess that's why i'm not a lawyer! On reflection, it really was handled brilliantly. Cheney is stuck in a catch-22 with this stuff. If he comes out to say "oops, i made a little mistake, i forgot, etc" then it opens up the questions on all the other things he lied about. If he doesn't say anything, the media holds on to the story with the juicy pictures...