Posted on 10/24/2004 5:14:42 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
The Associated Press
FARMINGTON, N.M. - "You're being so nice," Lynne Cheney said to her husband, by way of signaling that she was not about to be.
With that, the wife of the vice president of the United States took over from Dick Cheney. He had given a wordy, government-speak response to a questioner's complaint about costlier Medicare premiums. His answer included only a mild rebuke of Sen. John F. Kerry.
"I've watched Sen. Kerry go across the country lambasting the president about the 17 percent increase," she said, "when he actually voted for it." Kerry did not specifically vote for the 17 percent increase - it was mandated under a 1997 law requiring premiums to rise as costs do.
But Cheney's point was clear, even if the reference wasn't.
She was speaking Wednesday, at a "town hall" meeting held at a restaurant in Clio, Mich., just off Interstate 75. But it could have been any recent day -- say, Friday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, or later that day in the Iowa farming community of Nevada, or here in northwestern New Mexico on Saturday.
As the vice president travels through the most hotly contested states in the presidential election, his wife is at his side, playing an active, animated role.
She introduces her husband at each stop, telling the story of their teen-aged courtship - and softening up the image of defense secretary long aligned with the Republican Party's most hawkish factions.
She sits at his side in his frequent question-and-answer sessions with supportive audiences. Often speaking on her own initiative, she offers blunt and biting commentary on Kerry and his running mate, Sen. John Edwards.
In recreation centers, county fair barns, and hotel ballrooms, the vice president and his wife sit on matching four-legged wooden stools with swiveling seats.
Along with two large pillows for their hotel room, the furniture travels with them. As the Cheneys emerge from a forward door on Air Force Two, the stools are taken out the rear door, placed in a van in their motorcade, and set up at event sites moments before they walk in.
As they take their seats she tells the audience that they've known each other since they were 14 when he was "sweeping out the Ben Franklin store" in their hometown of Casper, Wyo., she says. He worked hard "stringing power line all across the West to pay his way through school."
He tells the story of the move that brought his family to Casper from Lincoln, Neb., and says that had the move not taken place, he and Lynne would not have met and she would have married someone else - and, he says, her response to that is that the other guy would have become vice president of the United States. She gives the audience a look that suggests she never said any such thing.
In their campaign appearances, the vice president plays the central role, to be sure. But when his wife speaks up, more often than not her commentary - offered as he finishes his response to a question - sharpens his answer.
As the controversy over Teresa Heinz Kerry's remark that Laura Bush had never held a real job was dying down at the end of the week, Lynne Cheney made sure Heinz Kerry's comments would not be forgotten.
On Saturday, she told an enthusiastic but small crowd in a high school gymnasium that the first lady "is wise and warm and gracious. She's a teacher. She's a librarian. And Mrs. Bush and the president know that raising a family is a real job."
The day before, the vice president, in response to a question about Iraq, reiterated in his matter-of-fact monotone the administration's desire to keep U.S. troops there not one day longer than necessary.
She took over with her assessment of news coverage of the war: "There is a sort of media bias that says good news is no news, and so what we get is the bad news. We don't hear about all the schools the Marines have built. We don't hear about the men and women who are leading better lives," she said.
"I get on the Internet and, you know, read some of the Web logs and there are some really interesting stories... People in Iraq say how grateful they are for the freedoms the Americans have brought."
Lynne Cheney is well versed in public speaking and public policy. She earned a doctorate in 19th century British literature at the University of Wisconsin, is a senior scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a Republican-oriented think tank, and is a former head of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
"One of the most talented women in America," Sen. Pete Domenici, a New Mexico Republican, said Saturday as he introduced her. "Lynne Cheney will never let us down."
I admired Lynne Cheney long before she was the "Second" Lady. I remember seeing her many times before the 2000 election and she always had my respect.
These people are a class act. I just love the line about if Mrs. Cheney had married someone else, he would be the Veep. LOL!
Several years ago I heard of Mrs. Cheney as a Vice-Presidential prospect for Dole in 1996. She is that good!
I, too, love both of these ladies, Miss Laura and Miss Lynn. Both are American treasures.
Think we can enlist one or both of them to help push sweeping new voting rules during the next term (if sKerry's creepy minions don't manage to cheat their way in THIS time)?
Leni
When President Bush picked VP Cheney as his running mate,
I felt it was a bittersweet time. I was happy that Cheney would be the VP but sad that we would be losing one of the strongest conservative voices.
This is why the press has had a black out on her for the last 4 years.
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