When up is down, &c.

National Review ^ | 1/13/2009 | Jay Nordlinger

[Signalman]

In the last few days, I’ve been thinking a little about Dick Cheney’s image. This stems from a lunch a group of us had with him last week (and I wrote about it here). Cheney is an unusual person: very sensible, very measured, very trustworthy. No wonder he has been entrusted with so many sensitive government positions. He is a calm person, and he has a calming effect on others. He is the kind of man you want in public service — party or partisanship quite aside.

In the course of our lunch, he said that the recent Democratic victory was “part of the normal cycle of a competitive two-party system,” and “fundamentally healthy for the nation.” He also talked about how wondrous it was to swear in the first black president.

[twoputt]

I’m going to miss Cheney. He is a class act. A man’s man. I don’t think W could have picked a better VP.

[Right Cal Gal]

I love Dick Cheney. I always considered him the Smartest Man in the Room (unless Justice Scalia walked in).

[Carl from Marietta]

One of the very few things W did right.

[TChad]

It seems to me that the Left has won: utterly and decisively. What I mean is, the Saturday Night Live, Jon Stewart, Bill Maher mentality has prevailed. They decide what a person’s image is, and those images stick. They are the ones who say that Cheney’s a monster, W.’s stupid, and Palin’s a bimbo. And the country, apparently, follows.

That is the way it seems to me, too. Then again, I live surrounded by liberals.

Good piece.

[piytar]

GW screwed up a lot, but he did more than a few things right. Try keeping us safe after 9-11 despite the traitorous left, Alito, Roberts, tax cuts, nixing the so-called assault weapons ban, etc.