There's no other way to put it. . .

. . .Dick Cheney just pummelled John Edwards for two hours. I would liken it to Randall "Tex" Cobb's bout with Larry Holmes, but Tex somehow manages to find his beating a source of pride. But, Andrew Sullivan -- well:

"IN BRIEF: Boy was I ever wrong. If last Thursday night's debate was an assisted suicide for president Bush, this debate - just concluded - was a car wreck. And Cheney was road-kill. There were times when it was so overwhelming a debate victory for Edwards that I had to look away. I have to do C-SPAN now, but stay tuned for more post-debate blogging in a little while."

I can't help thinking Andrew must have been watching with a more hopeful than observant eye. To even contemplate the idea that Cheney lost, much less was reduced to "road kill" reveals something about his mindset--perhaps a blindspot for middle America. But, however you view that debate, I'm willing to bet my first Corvette that Cheney won in the states where it counts.

The "thirty-year record" of being on the wrong side of defense line was a great one, and I think it will resonate strongly with people who grew up in the Reagan era, like me. What it tells me on a personal level is that, for just about as long as I've been alive, John Kerry has been an anti-defense Democrat. He's opposed military spending longer than I've been able to read about it in the newspaper. And now -- now -- he's the strong, steady Commander-in-Chief type? Ready to defend our nation preemptively, despite world opinion if need be?