US: While Cheney and Edwards slugged it out, Conor O'Clery in Cleveland watched the vice-presidential debate with Cheney supporters - plus Tony Rio and the Relentless.
Republicans watched the vice-presidential debate on giant TV monitors at a rally in Gray's Armoury, an old downtown building where Cleveland's first militia was formed 150 years ago. Greeting them as they entered was Mike Marcellino, the ceremonial adjutant, dressed in tall bearskin hat and 19th century cross whites.
"I'm actually a swing voter," he told me, because "as a Vietnam veteran you have to separate the war from the warriors, and America's not always right".
But there were no such doubts in the minds of the 400 ticket-only Cheney fans who crowded into the armoury hall on Tuesday evening beneath posters proclaiming "Cheney Rocks" and "Peace Through Strength".
"Cheney has authority and Edwards is just a Southern boy," said postman Michael Ramacciatti dismissively, as Tony Rio and the Relentless played rock music before the debate started.
"I'm a Republican," said the bandleader as he took a break. "I don't know about the others - we were just hired for the night."
The hall erupted in cheers when the TV screens showed Cheney arriving on stage at the debate site, and booed as John Edwards flashed his smile at moderator Gwen Ifill. They cheered again a few seconds later when the vice president said "what we did was exactly the right thing to do" in Iraq, and when Cheney took Edwards to task for missing Senate votes, with the admonition about one vote: "You probably weren't there for that."
"In fact," said Cheney, turning to Edwards and reminding everyone that he presided over the Senate, "the first time I ever met you was when you walked onto the stage tonight."
This jibe evoked the loudest "gotcha" whoops of the night. The room booed the North Carolina senator when he accused Cheney of "not being straight with the American people" over Iraq. But as the debate progressed their confidence grew that former trial lawyer was not going to do a Perry Mason, that Edwards was not going to wound the vice president, as John Kerry did the president last week.
For example when Cheney, addressing his opponent in the weary monotone of a CEO dressing down a junior director, stated flatly that he had never suggested a connection between Iraq and September 11th, Edwards failed to throw back at him Cheney's often-cited description of Iraq as the "geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11".
The Republicans seethed along with Cheney as Edwards talked condescendingly about the vice president's love for his lesbian daughter and booed a little when the Democrat cited investigations into Cheney's old firm, Halliburton, and recalled his Congress vote against freedom for Nelson Mandela. But they roared with delight again when the moderator threw a zinger at Edwards, pointing out that he was the least experienced of the last 10 candidates for the job of vice president.
Passions ebbed as the debate turned to the economy and the crowd listened more attentively to what both candidates had to say. As it ended a couple standing beside me conceded that Edwards had recovered some lost ground and seemed "a pretty nice fellow".
The monitors showed the wives of Cheney and Edwards climbing onto the stage to congratulate the gladiators. Elizabeth Edwards went over to the vice president to remind him, it turned out later, that he had in fact met her husband three times before, and that in 2001 Cheney had actually thanked Edwards by name at a Senate prayer breakfast and sat beside him during the event. "Oh yeah!" Cheney replied.
As the screen went blank in the armoury, local Republican leader Bob Bennett delivered a broadside against John Kerry as "the man who came home for the war and threw his medals over the fence and slandered his troops". (Boos.)
The sound of the police sirens signalled the arrival of the vice president's limousine outside, prompting the crowd to produce a forest of flags and signs saying Flush the Johns and Absentee Edwards.
Cheney, smirking triumphantly, came in with his wife Lynn, who took the microphone to exclaim: "I gotta tell you I love this man! There's just one word for it - awsome!" From the rafters a cascade of red, white and blue balloons poured down, which the Republicans gleefully burst, making a noise like machine-gun fire and giving secret service agents severe heartburn.
The vice president had a message for the faithful. There were only four weeks left until November 2nd: every phone call, every door bell rung, every dollar, was crucial. Before he left the crowd chanted "Four more years". Cheney grinned, waved and announced: "I accept!"