I caught the first half on the radio in my car and the second half at my friend's house. There's not much to say... the Vice President walked away with it. It's odd to me that he would have been so certain about not meeting Senator Edwards and yet mistaken, but otherwise I think he did a great job. He could have done more to point out that the "huge corporations" Edwards loathes are actually owned by Americans -- specifically Halliburton.
It was a bit odd that the VP surrendered so much time on a few answers. That's unusual for political debates, but in general I think it's smart to be concise rather than to keep talking just to fill space. That's what Edwards did several times, jumping from topic to topic, and it was annoying. Despite Cheney's restraint, the debate still went 10 minutes over its alloted time.
It seems likely that Cheney just forgot previous meetings especially since Edwards could have contradicted him and didn't. He probably forgot too.
Still, the zinger seemed premeditated, and for that reason I would think Cheney could have done a quick fact-check before adding it to his repertoire.
In any event, the Veep wiped the floor with that kid.
Style-wise, I'd give it to Cheney; his experience showed in comparison with Edwards' relative youth. But if you're talking about actual content, Cheney was just outright lying much of the time. And not just about inconsequential stuff like whether he'd ever met Edwards or whether he (Cheney) was or wasn't presiding at the Senate "most Tuesdays," but on more substantive stuff like which part of Iraq Zarqawi was operating out of prior to the war, and whether factcheck.org did or didn't refute Edwards' charges that Cheney was CEO of Halliburton while the company engaged in various illegal practices.
I'm not sure that can accurately be characterized as either "walking away with it" or "wiping the floor" with your opponent. Maybe for someone who just takes all of Cheney's remarks at face value, and doesn't bother evaluating the truth of anything he says, he might be perceived as having achieved a clear victory. But I think in this case it could well turn out to be winning the battle but losing the war, especially if, as seems likely, the Kerry campaign and Democrats generally spend the next several news cycles pointing out how Cheney lied in the debate, and (this is the important part) how that lying ties in with the administration's track record of misleading and misrepresenting things.