Posted on 07/19/2004 7:13:36 AM PDT by areafiftyone
Vice President Cheney is demonized by Democrats but a god to the GOP faithful. And while electrifying is hardly a word one might associate with the veep, charging up core crowds crucial to President Bush's reelection is just what he's doing. The Daily News' Washington Bureau Chief Thomas M. DeFrank has spent recent weeks on the road with Cheney to find out just why some Republicans say he's the party's "secret weapon."
MINNEAPOLIS - Dick Cheney has never lost an election when his name was on the ballot, and he doesn't intend to lose this one, either - his last hurrah in four decades of government work.
That helps explain why the 63-year-old vice president, who does not exactly thrive on campaigning and is not famed for his oratorical skills, already has logged more than 60 political events this election cycle, flying mostly under the radar.
Cheney's reputation as the power behind the Bush throne, particularly with respect to Iraq, has damaged his public standing. Yet he has never been more beloved by the GOP faithful, and re-election planners have mapped out a heavy travel schedule for the veep in battleground states in the next 15 weeks.
"He is our secret weapon with the base," a senior Bush-Cheney official said, "and if we don't get the base out, we don't win."
As the groundless chatter that he might be dumped from the GOP ticket finally dissipated last week, Cheney blitzed Pennsylvania, Michigan, Iowa and Minnesota, lacing into the Democratic ticket as flip-flopping, tax-hiking liberals who cannot be counted on in the crunch.
At every stop, he accused Sens. John Kerry and John Edwards of "a convenient case of campaign amnesia" on the issues. "I've watched them on TV ... waffling and weaving, backing and filling ... trying to rewrite history for [their] own political purposes."
His most effective sound bite criticizes the handful of erstwhile allies who opposed the Iraq war.
"There is a difference between leading a coalition of many nations and submitting to the objections of a few," he says in every speech, bringing audiences alive. "The United States will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our nation."
For the most part, however, Cheney delivers these crowd-pleasing broadsides with the passion of a stalactite. His wife, Lynne, who usually introduces him, is the family's accomplished speaker, connecting with audiences far more easily than her husband.
His idea of an ad lib is a hearty, "I'm going to take this crowd with me to the next stop." His example of a flourish is shedding his suit jacket.
At a rally in Altoona, Pa., this month, a local reporter offered Cheney faint praise, writing that he was finally "delivering an entire line of his standard stump speech looking at the audience instead of the podium as he usually does."
Cheney's taciturn, serious-to-a-fault style is seen as a definite virtue by Bush-Cheney strategists, a perfect foil to the youthfulness and inexperience of Edwards. "So he's charisma-challenged," a GOP operative says. "He's not an empty suit like the other guy."
Occasionally, the veep surprises with a winning one-liner. He has begun saying that he heard his Democratic counterpart Edwards was tapped for his good looks and charm.
"How do you think I got this job?" Cheney deadpans, adding after the laughter dies down: "Why is that funny?"
While Cheney's persona is as immutable as the rugged Grand Teton mountains near his Wyoming home, his handlers are trying to soften the edges. Last week, the doting grandfather campaigned with two of his granddaughters, introducing 10-year-old Kate and 6-year-old Elizabeth at every stop. His senior prom date and wife of 40 years introduces him as "a great husband, and a great father, and ... a fabulous, if somewhat soft-hearted, grandfather."
Unlike 2000, when Bush campaign managers saw Cheney as a critical weapon to woo crucial independent swing voters, the veep is preaching to the choir this time.
"The truth is, if we win Ohio it will only be because we've created a blowout with our voters," a senior GOP official told the Daily News. "It's Cheney's job to charge them up and turn them out."
In Minneapolis last weekend, the true believers pronounced themselves satisfied. "He's an honest fellow who's got a brain," said Howard Stenzel, a retired chief financial officer from suburban Cottage Grove, "and he's not a lawyer. That's important."
"In Minneapolis last weekend, the true believers pronounced themselves satisfied. "He's an honest fellow who's got a brain," said Howard Stenzel, a retired chief financial officer from suburban Cottage Grove, "and he's not a lawyer. That's important."
This comment and summation says it all. Neither Cheney or Bush are lawyers. This fact should be trumpeted from the highest rooftops. In the mind of the average American, this fact alone merits voting for the Bush-Cheney ticket.
In memory of the late President Ronald Reagan.
The Democrats understand Cheney is going to take Edwards apart, just as he did Lieberman in 2000.
I can't wait to watch it.
I think Dick Cheney is the smartest official in the Bush admin, followed by a close second, Condi.
I'll take substance over style any day.
What more could one ask for?
I would much rather see Cheney at the top of the ticket. However I don't understand how the faithful as so enamored with him, as I have never heard him promoting the America as a Christian Nation myth.
And my God man, he's got a gay daughter!
This was an encouraging article. It's great to see after so much bad press.
I can't help but draw the comparison as the Dems (many of whose precursors supported a maniacal dictator in the 30s; conveniently forgotten after 1941) vilify Cheney as oil for blood for Iraq just for the sake of inventing a bad guy from an innocent. Same thing was done by said unnamed maniacal dictator who selected a different set of innocents.
Boy, are they in for a surprise.
Isn't that child abuse?
Edwards - half the Congressional experience of Dan Quayle with none of Quayle's gravitas.
Your point?
I hate his energy policy.
Better brush up on your history: Mandela was a terrorist, and was, and still is, scum.
"Cheney called Mandela a terrorist... that makes him scum in my book."
In my opinion, this proves that Cheney is a superb judge of character. Mandela is more than simply a terrorist; in fact, he's a communist, too!
And this also OUTS Omnibus as a closet Democrat, trolling the Freeper boards!
Cheney would be rooting for apartheid if it were still around."
Hey, it's a troll! Freshly registered today. Probably a girlie man from DU.
Goodby troll!!!!!!!!
Mandela's not a terrorist... just a criminal.
Listen Cheney is not responsible for what his daughter's sexual preferences are. His daughter is an adult and she made that choice herself. What do you want him to do disown his own daughter? He loves his daughter. And even though he doesn't approve of her lifestyle he has to deal with it - that is his own personal burdon NOT OURS! We simply cannot blame Cheney for what his daughter prefers.
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