E-mail:
Jack Balkin: jackbalkin at yahoo.com
Bruce Ackerman bruce.ackerman at yale.edu
Ian Ayres ian.ayres at yale.edu
Corey Brettschneider corey_brettschneider at brown.edu
Mary Dudziak mary.l.dudziak at emory.edu
Joey Fishkin joey.fishkin at gmail.com
Heather Gerken heather.gerken at yale.edu
Abbe Gluck abbe.gluck at yale.edu
Mark Graber mgraber at law.umaryland.edu
Stephen Griffin sgriffin at tulane.edu
Jonathan Hafetz jonathan.hafetz at shu.edu
Jeremy Kessler jkessler at law.columbia.edu
Andrew Koppelman akoppelman at law.northwestern.edu
Marty Lederman msl46 at law.georgetown.edu
Sanford Levinson slevinson at law.utexas.edu
David Luban david.luban at gmail.com
Gerard Magliocca gmaglioc at iupui.edu
Jason Mazzone mazzonej at illinois.edu
Linda McClain lmcclain at bu.edu
John Mikhail mikhail at law.georgetown.edu
Frank Pasquale pasquale.frank at gmail.com
Nate Persily npersily at gmail.com
Michael Stokes Paulsen michaelstokespaulsen at gmail.com
Deborah Pearlstein dpearlst at yu.edu
Rick Pildes rick.pildes at nyu.edu
David Pozen dpozen at law.columbia.edu
Richard Primus raprimus at umich.edu
K. Sabeel Rahmansabeel.rahman at brooklaw.edu
Alice Ristroph alice.ristroph at shu.edu
Neil Siegel siegel at law.duke.edu
David Super david.super at law.georgetown.edu
Brian Tamanaha btamanaha at wulaw.wustl.edu
Nelson Tebbe nelson.tebbe at brooklaw.edu
Mark Tushnet mtushnet at law.harvard.edu
Adam Winkler winkler at ucla.edu
The first half hour or so was very spirited. After that, it lost energy. Gwen Ifill's questions near the end were unimaginative and did little to advance the debate. About 50 minutes into the debate I was hoping they would wrap it up early. Instead, they ran several minutes late.
This morning the New York Times ran a story whose opening sentences suggested that both candidates stretched or distorted the truth. But when you read the story, it appears that most of the examples involved Cheney, and only a few involved Edwards. Indeed, at some points in the debate Cheney was pretty shameless in his attempts to mislead, for example in attacking Kerry for opposing defense programs Cheney himself had also opposed, and in his insistence that he had never suggested that Saddam was connected to 9/11. (He even tried to insist that he had never met Edwards to insinuate that Edwards was irresponsible as a senator. This line of attack seemed very much a prepared line, and so I do not think we can attribute it to a momentary lapse of memory).
Cheney must have known that he would be fact checked afterwards, but apparently he thought that most listeners would tune out and not pay attention to what was reported later on in the print media. When Edwards was asked why he was qualified to be Vice-President, I think he should have simply said, "I will tell the truth. Decades of service in Washington have apparently made my opponent so hardbitten and cynical that he has no compunction about misleading the public even when the facts are easy to check."