Cheney 2012?

Batman Jones · Nov 29, 2009

I would love this. And give Palin another go at VP.

Jon Meacham
Why Dick Cheney Should Run in 2012
Published Nov 28, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Dec 7, 2009

Gallup is not asking about him in its prospective polling, and his daughter Liz's recent Fox News Sunday allusion to a presidential run provoked good-natured laughter, as though the suggestion were just a one-liner. Float the hypothetical in political conversation, and people roll their eyes dismissively.

But I think we should be taking the possibility of a Dick Cheney bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 more seriously, for a run would be good for the Republicans and good for the country. (The sound you just heard in the background was liberal readers spitting out their lattes.)

Why? Because Cheney is a man of conviction, has a record on which he can be judged, and whatever the result, there could be no ambiguity about the will of the people. The best way to settle arguments is by having what we used to call full and frank exchanges about the issues, and then voting. A contest between Dick Cheney and Barack Obama would offer us a bracing referendum on competing visions. One of the problems with governance since the election of Bill Clinton has been the resolute refusal of the opposition party (the GOP from 1993 to 2001, the Democrats from 2001 to 2009, and now the GOP again in the Obama years) to concede that the president, by virtue of his victory, has a mandate to take the country in a given direction. A Cheney victory would mean that America preferred a vigorous unilateralism to President Obama's unapologetic multilateralism, and vice versa.

Three years out, the GOP field does not offer a putative nominee. When Gallup polled on the Republican race for 2012, it asked about Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty, and Haley Barbour (Huckabee won, with Romney and Palin tying for second among Republicans who were asked whom they would consider voting for). Cheney covers all the ground these folks do, and then some. (After Liz Cheney's remark on Fox News, a flood of subsequent e-mails asked her, "Where do I sign up?") In an era of ideological purity within the party, Cheney is among the purest; no one can question his conservative credentials on national security, and his record in the House and as vice president places him beyond reproach from the base. He was, it is true, second in command in years of great deficit spending, but his image as an implacable foe of terrorism and a hardliner on the projection of American power would go a long way toward securing his position within the party as a warrior of the old school offering himself once more to a nation he has served in four different decades.

A campaign would also give us an occasion that history denied us in 2008: an opportunity to adjudicate the George W. Bush years in a direct way. As John McCain pointed out in the fall of 2008, he is not Bush. Nor is Cheney, but the former vice president would make the case for the harder-line elements of the Bush world view. Far from fading away, Cheney has been the voice of the opposition since the inauguration. Wouldn't it be more productive and even illuminating if he took his arguments out of the realm of punditry and into the arena of electoral politics? Are we more or less secure because of the conduct of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq? Does the former vice president still believe in a connection between Saddam and Al Qaeda? Did the counterterror measures adopted in the aftermath of the attacks go too far? Let's have the fight and see what the country thinks.

Historically the country has tended to muddle through somewhere between the extremes of right and left. There is often much virtue in conducting public life by fits and starts. When things drift too far one way in ideological terms, Americans are pretty good about tugging them back to the middle.

But the middle moves depending on where the poles of right and left are standing at a particular moment. Given Cheney's views, even conservatives who dislike him or think it is time to open a new chapter might give the possibility another thought, for it seems much more likely that Cheney would pull Obama to the right than that Obama would pull Cheney to the left. I think it is safe to say that neither a Huckabee nor a Palin bid would have the same effect.

No one foresaw Cheney's reemergence as a force in the politics of the 21st century until it happened. So perhaps the pattern is set, a pattern of insistent denial of interest—until it turns out that, hey, he is interested. Cheney's memoirs are due to be published—and thus due to be promoted—in the spring of 2011, not long before the caucuses and primaries begin. I'll bet you that the Barnes & Noble in Des Moines (there's a big one at The Shoppes at Three Fountains) is on the book tour.
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Cohete Rojo · Nov 29, 2009

I had waited since 2000 to vote for John McCain, why ruin another good thing with Sarah Palin?

aghast · Nov 29, 2009

I truly dislike Meacham, and the direction he's taken Newsweek.

Cheney has had at least four heart attacks. It's not exactly a good bet that he survives until 2012, much less will be able to carry on a national campaign then.

Dubious · Nov 29, 2009

That old man would die of exposure just trying to make the town halls in New Hampshire.

krosfyah · Nov 29, 2009

He's gotta live that long first.

mtbrays · Nov 29, 2009

krosfyah said:

He's gotta live that long first.
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You mean he's not a cyborg?

Rocket River · Nov 29, 2009

Honestly,
I will say this . . . Palin has done alot of good to her image
. . . or at worse. . . hasn't made it worse.
Plus She still in the public eye.

I hope arrogance and elitism does not make 'the left'
[you know the party that has been out of power for close to a decade ]
Underestimate her or over estimate the american public

Palin/Chaney looks alot like Bush Chaney

Democrats have ROUTINELY shown the ability to truly Disappoint!!
Democrats truly do not play politics very well . . . .so stuff like this scares me
cause
Democrats show . . . if there is a way to ***** Isht up . . THEY WILL FIND IT!

Rocket River
oops. . . sorry a bit of a rant

Refman · Nov 29, 2009

I would sooner have Helen Keller coach the Rockets than have Dick Cheney run for President.

Samurai Jack · Nov 29, 2009

Never happen, to much baggage.

Rashmon · Nov 29, 2009

He's going to need a tuneup...

mc mark · Nov 29, 2009

On a side note, seems Mike Huckabee's political career is pretty much over after this weekend.

rocketsjudoka · Nov 29, 2009

mc mark said:

On a side note, seems Mike Huckabee's political career is pretty much over after this weekend.
Click to expand...

What happened to Mike Huckabee?

A_3PO · Nov 29, 2009

rocketsjudoka said:

What happened to Mike Huckabee?
Click to expand...

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/30/washington.police.shooting/

Dead in the water.

rocketsjudoka · Nov 29, 2009

A_3PO said:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/30/washington.police.shooting/

Dead in the water.
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Interesting. I have been following that story yet missed that the suspect had been commuted by Mike Huckabee.

DaDakota · Nov 29, 2009

He would just be a sacrificial Lamb if Obama is still popular.

DD

Bandwagoner · Nov 30, 2009

If he wanted it he would have run in the previous election. He has said many times he has no politcal ambition in the future. I seriously doubt he could live through a campaign much less a term.

BucMan55 · Nov 30, 2009

please no!

Nice Rollin · Nov 30, 2009

it's gonna be newt gingrich

/thread

rimrocker · Nov 30, 2009

Did I miss something? For him to run in the Republican Party these days, wouldn't Cheney need to be pregnant with a Down's baby?

JuanValdez · Nov 30, 2009

Run? Sure, go ahead. If he wins though, I will be very afraid.

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