Veep matchup hard to call
 |  Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John Edwards shake hands before their debate. |
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| PUNDITS' DEBATE BLOGS |
 Rips and raves from the VP debate
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| DEBATE DATES |  Friday
Second presidential debate: Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri
October 13
Third presidential debate: Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona
All debates start at 9 p.m. ET
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CLEVELAND, Ohio (CNN) -- In their duel of wits and words, the two "seconds" in the race for the White House sometimes appeared more evenly matched than the two top-of-the-ticket contenders who debated last week.
But some who watched the debate say the outcome of the only running mate debate may prove to be a draw for Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John Edwards.
"I'm confused. They were both so convincing, but it's hard to know who was right," said Marcia Vinick, an uncommitted voter from Scotia, New York, who told The Associated Press that she went into the debate leaning toward voting for President Bush.
"I think Cheney is maybe more dignified in his approach. I found Edwards was more defensive. He was talking a lot more, trying to be more convincing. I like what he said. They were both good speakers."
Both debaters also impressed Democratic consultant Jim Duffy, according to AP.
"I wish the tickets were flipped, that these guys would be at the top because these are two masterful debaters," he said.
"They did much better than either of the people they're running under."
Consultants and pundits will be closely watching the polling numbers on this latest verbal joust.
After the face-off between the president and Sen. John Kerry last week, Bush lost his commanding lead in the polls, according to some estimates. The camera caught him smirking, pursing his lips and looking irritably off stage.
In contrast, Cheney sat calmly, lauding his resume as vice president, secretary of defense and businessman and punched away at the Democratic ticket.
"If we want to win the war on terror, it seems to me it's pretty clear the choice is George Bush, not John Kerry," Cheney said.
"If they couldn't stand up to pressures that Howard Dean represented," Cheney said of Kerry and Edwards' rival in the Democratic primaries, "how can we expect them to stand up to al Qaeda?"
"Frankly, senator," he said to Edwards, "you have a record that's not very distinguished."
But questions of experience were also raised by Edwards.
"Mr. Vice President, I don't think the country can take four more years of this type of experience," Edwards said.
He also recited a list of votes Cheney cast in Congress, against Head Start, against banning plastic guns, against creating a holiday for Martin Luther King Jr.
The brash, younger first-term senator also suggested that Cheney's former company got special treatment with no-bid contracts in Iraq.
The two men walked carefully around questions of gay marriage.
"I think the vice president and his wife love their daughter," Edwards said. "I think they love her very much and you can't have anything but respect for the fact that they're willing to talk about the fact that they have a gay daughter [and] they're willing to embrace her."
But Cheney said he supported the president's decision to seek a ban on gay marriages.
When pressed, Edwards said he agreed that marriage should only be between a man and woman, but he thought the issue should be left to the states.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
