"CBS gives Edwards the edge"

Once again, the news media, including BOR, needs to get their damn act together and stop analyzing poll results without margin of error! A sampling of 169 voters has a margin of error of about +/-8%. In other words, there's no point in comparing performance with such a small population sample, because it depends too much on which particular 169 people you survey. Responsible media coverage please.

I'm not vouching for its validity or not. I was hoping to see several snap polls to gauge a general trend, but I haven't seen anything else so far.

The VP debate was a draw. So the real story about the VP debate is not the comparison between Edwards and Cheney, it is the comparison between Bush and Cheney. Cheney makes a stronger case for the Bush administration than George Bush does, and that says little about overall strength of the Republican ticket with George Bush as president.

Chrisken --

The spread is 13 points. The great probability is that Edwards has a significant advantage in this.

Watching the debate, I have to say in many ways it was a draw; at least in the sense that Cheney actually is an effective advocate, whereas Bush is not. So at least it was competitive.

Edwards on style.

Cheney won on style and on substance last night. He made Edwards look too young and inexperienced by comparison. But who really cares about the VP debate? Even the Bentsen slam of Quayle just made people wish Bentsen was the nominee instead of Dukakis.

BTW, the ABC snap poll, with over 500 respondents, had a Cheney win by 43-35. Note how much of the liberal side is calling this a draw, just like the conservative side said last week.

1) Is it too late for both sides to flip the nominees?

2) Did anyone else know that if children don't have health insurance they will get AIDS?

TM - Andrew Sullivan and Political Wire aren't liberals. Both called it for Edwards. Basically, only one thing had to happen last night. Edwards had to prove that he had enough experience and grasp of the issues to become president if necessary. He did that. Cheney was an effective advocate for Bush on terrorism/Iraq, and Edwards was effective on domestic issues.

As for the 8 point spread - I'm not worried. It had a 7 point GOP participation edge. So, weighted for that, it's a tie.