To the Point

Did the Vice Presidential Debate Make a Difference?

If you don't like one poll on last night's debate, pick another one. ABC calls Cheney the winner; CBS says it was Edwards. Most of the issues were familiar from last week's Presidential debate and, for the most part, more clearly stated this time around. Did Cheney reinforce the impression that Kerry and Edwards can't make up their minds? Did Edwards make the case that Cheney and Bush "aren't being straight with the American people?" What's the likely impact on the presidential campaign? Warren Olney speaks with journalists, pollsters and political scholars, pollsters for reaction from some of the major swing states. Making News: Chief Weapons Inspector Files Draft Report on WMD's President Bush says Saddam Hussein posed "a gathering threat" before the Iraq war, but he is directly contradicted by the current Chief US Weapons Inspector. Charles Duelfer's 1000-page report, out today, calls Hussein a "diminishing threat," who did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have any concrete plans to get them. Bob Drogin, who reports from Washington for the Los Angeles Times, has more on the findings. Reporter's Notebook: Supply of Flu Vaccine Won't Make it to US US authorities were surprised yesterday by the British health authority's three-month closure of a flu vaccine factory in Liverpool. The US is dependent on the Chiron factory for half its supply, and the only other supplier is in France. Professor Harry Greenberg, senior associate dean of research at Stanford University's School of Medicine, discusses the consequences and reasons behind the shortage.