Americans watching Vice President Dick Cheney square off against Democratic Senator John Edwards in an October debate will see two politicians with starkly different styles: the sober Washington insider versus the silver-tongued freshman senator.The lone nationally televised face off from Cleveland, Ohio, will pit an eloquent candidate with boyish good looks against an older, balding vice president with a sedate speaking style.
But the debate will also highlight Edwards' brief governmental experience against a Republican with a resume long on national security issues who has been a key adviser to President George W. Bush in his decision to invade Iraq.
"I believe that the debate between the two vice presidential (candidates) will be important and will receive a lot of press attention because the two men are so different in many ways," said Eric Davis, a political science professor at Middlebury College in Vermont.
Prior to entering politics, Edwards earned millions of dollars as a persuasive trial lawyer representing parents who lost their children in botched hospital deliveries, and children who lost their parents in car wrecks.
The 51-year-old southerner, who Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry picked Tuesday as his running mate, became one of North Carolina's two senators in 1998. It was his first elected position.
Cheney, by contrast, has more than 30 years of government experience and is the former chief executive officer of energy giant Halliburton, a key contractor in Iraq. Cheney, 63, was former president Gerald Ford's chief of staff in the 1970s and former president George Bush's defence secretary during the 1991 Gulf War to oust Iraq from Kuwait.
Bush, who will seek a second four-year term in the November 2 election, has already taken a shot against Edwards by underscoring Cheney's experience.
"Dick Cheney can be president," Bush said.
Kerry, of course, disagreed. "This man is ready for this job. He's ready to help lead America. He's a person of compassion and conviction, of strength," Kerry said of his running mate, who was his main rival in the Democratic primary.
Democrats have pointed out that Edwards has gained foreign policy experience by serving on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
But little government experience is not necessarily a weakness.
When Bush won the 2000 presidential election, he had been governor of Texas for just six years.
Bush's decision to pick Cheney as his running mate four years ago was seen as an attempt to boost the Republican ticket's national security credentials. Kerry's pick of Edwards in this election is seen as an attempt to inject charisma into the Massachusetts senator's sober campaign.
Although the vice presidency has been considered in the past as a largely ceremonial post, the last two vice presidents have held important roles in their respective administrations.