In just a few hours Senator John Kerry and Mr. George W. Bush will take to the stage once more for the second Kerry-Bush Debate. This comes only days after the Edwards-Cheney Debate which apparently came out as a tie. And that’s a good thing, because I thought that Cheney was going to dominate. I must admit, I was thoroughly disappointed in Edwards’ performance. But he held his own, and that’s all a vice presidential candidate really has to do.

Ultimately, Edwards looked a little too much like Bush from the first debate–like a school kid being scolded by the teacher. Of course, everything Cheney said was a lie, even getting his fact check reference wrong. But he said his lies much more authoritatively, which helped bolster perceptions of Edwards as being inexperienced. I thought it was over when Cheney said that is was the first time he had met Edwards. Of course, that too was a lie. But I thought for sure it would be the clip that news channels would be playing over and over again for the next week. I’m glad to see I was wrong.

While I was disappointed with Edwards, I think the real loser of Tuesday’s debate was PBS’ Gwen Ifill who gets the award for most bizarre presidential debate questions ever. For instance:

As the vice president mentioned, John Kerry comes from the state of Massachusetts, which has taken as big a step as any state in the union to legalize gay marriage. Yet both you and Senator Kerry say you oppose it.

Are you trying to have it both ways?

– Gwen Ifill

Yeah. What does Kerry mean with this “being from Massachusetts?” Anyone from Massachusetts who opposes gay marriage is obviously a flip-flopper.

Then there was:

Mr. Vice President, picking up on that, you both just sang the praises of the tops of your ticket. Without mentioning them by name at all, explain to us why you are different from your opponent, starting with you, Mr. Vice President.

– Gwen Ifill

Without mentioning them by name? Yes, and Gwen strictly enforced that rule on Edwards who dared to actually refer to Kerry by name. He obviously has no respect for insane, randomly chosen rules of debate.

Tonight’s debate in St. Louis will likely be a deciding factor in the election. Bush needs to at the very least not choke like he did last week to stay in the game. And if Kerry can pull out another obvious victory he can pretty much put this race away. But I’m not expecting this one to be as one-sided as the first. Rove likely had a talking-to with Bush after last Thursday. And in the semi-townhall format Bush’s folksy demeanor may come off a lot better. So I’m fully expecting this battle to come down to the very last debate.