As an added bonus I found out that VP Cheney is a proud new grandpa. His daughter and her husband welcomed baby boy Phillip into the world July 2:
Posted on 07/07/2004 10:41:28 AM PDT by areafiftyone
ALBANY — President Bush should consider dumping Vice President Dick Cheney from the Republican ticket this year, an influential former GOP senator said Wednesday. Alfonse D’Amato said Bush should consider putting Secretary of State Colin Powell or Sen. John McCain of Arizona on the GOP ticket. There was no immediate comment from the Bush-Cheney campaign. Bush has long maintained he wants Cheney to be his running mate. The D’Amato advice came one day after Bush’s Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry, announced he had selected Sen. John Edwards to be his running mate. “Let me note that Vice President Cheney is a decent, honorable, and patriotic American, a man of great intellect, who has served the president and the nation with dedication,” D’Amato said in a statement released by his office. “But we should make no mistake, we are a nation at war with a vicious terrorist foe, and in war hard decisions must be made.” “As an observer of politics, I believe the president can guarantee his essential re-election by looking to several other notable individuals who would add a great dimension to his ticket as a running mate,” the New York Republican added. Placing Powell “first and foremost” on his wish list to replace Cheney, D’Amato said the retired general “would help galvanize the nation and offer a truly historic opportunity for American unity and pride.” McCain, said D’Amato, is “a genuine American hero who would also help bridge the political divide in our nation and assure the president’s re-election by a wide margin.” “While I believe George Bush will win re-election even without this bold stroke, he will insure a broader, deeper, more resonant reaffirmation of his leadership if he places his duty to continue as president above any one individual,” D’Amato said. “The president deserves more than simple re-election,” the former senator added. “He deserves a mandate to continue to lead this nation to peace and prosperity.” D’Amato, who is now a highly successful lobbyist and consultant, first raised the possibility of Bush dropping Cheney from the GOP ticket in an interview Tuesday night with the NY 1 cable news channel in New York City. D’Amato is a regular commentator for NY 1. In his NY 1 appearance, D’Amato said that while he realized his comments would “shock Republicans and probably get them angry,” he said, “I think we can do better.” The former senator said he believed Powell would run with Bush if the position was offered to him. That, said D’Amato, “would change politics in America for the better.” “Instead of millions of African-Americans having their votes taken for granted or just saying, ‘Republicans don’t care about us, they don’t reach out to us,’ this would send an incredible signal,” D’Amato said. “It would turn many of the battle (ground) states into tremendous wins for Republicans.” D’Amato said McCain, who had been unsuccessfully courted by Kerry as a running mate, would help the GOP win votes from independents and conservative “Reagan Democrats.” D’Amato, who lost his Senate seat in 1998 to Democrat Charles Schumer, is a political mentor to New York Gov. George Pataki, who is considered a potential 2008 GOP presidential candidate.
Originally published on July 7, 2004
If the horrific events of late 2001 did not unify the country, nothing ever will. We are a nation approaching 300 million in population. Roughly 100 million vote in presidential elections. Practically speaking, it is impossible to unify so many people around a common political agenda, although one would wish they'd unify around the idea of self-preservation.
If a majority of those people are incapable of cutting through all the bull, looking at a few simple facts, and voting accordingly, it won't matter whatsoever who the VP candidate is on either ticket.
The simple facts are these:
This first presidential election since 9/11/01 is going to say more about the American people than it will about the candidates.
I believe the left's mantra is something like, "Cheney used his influence to score sweet contracts for Haliburton in the rebuilding of Iraq, and is undoubtedly getting kickbacks from Haliburton's extensive involvement in Iraq." Or something like that.
It would stun me. What information on Cheney's health do you have that the rest of us don't, including the patient, himself?
It is not an uncertainty. All evidence to date is Cheney had nothing to do with Plame or Wilson.
I'm in Arizona where it's nice and hot. Just back from visiting family in Wisconsin where it was nice but cold (to me, anyway).
Much like Clinton before him, Edwards is driven by ambition and hungers for the presidency. What he would do with it if he ever got it is frightening to contemplate. In any case, I see Kerry's selection of Edwards as a complete cave to two big Dem Party power centers: the trial lawyers and the Washington-New York media. The problem Kerry has (aside from the fact that Edwards is the prettier and better spoken of the two) is that Edwards would stab him in the back without hesitation if Edwards thought it would advance his own career.
They're assuming that Cheney helped Bush get elected in the first place. He didn't. There was all kinds of flack about Cheney in the first election, and Bush won anyway.
what evidence? do you know what the testimony is that has been given?
Cheney has this aged image about him, largely because of his white-fringed bald pate and heart history (with which he's had no recent problems). Chronologically, at 64 he is not really old for presidential politics.
Grin...I, for one, get your point, although I'd differ very slightly. It would be the Third American Revolution given that the Civil War was the second.
It's very true. I would be interested to see the results of the first election after Pearl Harbor.
Yes, politics, the press and the strenuous rigors of the campaign trail is hard enough for much younger and healthier campaigner's.
I worry about his health too, but I honestly can't think of anyone better suited, or capable of fulfilling the critical and expanded role of mentor and adviser, as well as V.P., that Cheney provides the President.
At any rate, PLEASE keep in mind what I stated.
Giuliani is bright, well-spoken and, thanks to 9-1-1, he left office as mayor in a positive light (his arrogance made him quite unpopular before that event). But those issues I mentioned should block him from any serious consideration for office at the national level.
In addition, Giuliani REFUSED to endorse Chrissie Whitman for governor when she first ran for that office in New Jersey against Democratic Governor Florio (before she was revealed as a RINO herself later) and he REFUSED to endorse Pataki for Governor when he ran in New York against Mario Cuomo the Democrat (again, before Pataki revealed himself to be a RINO).
NOW, all of a sudden Giuliani has aspirations for higher office and he's trying to pass himself off as Mr. Republican. Too bad he didn't feel the same way when he travelled the Country with Bill Clinton plugging Clinton's Ant-=Crime (and anti-gun) Bill.
You are totally on the mark. Condi and Colon are considered Aunt Jemima and uncle Tom, respectively, by the black Demonrat constituency.
Another way of saying they favor entitlements and believe they are entitled.
Wow. WTG Dubya!
D'amato won 3 statewide elections in a heavily D state, during at least 2 bad years for R's (86 and 92). He finally lost in ANOTHER bad year for R's, 98. He deserves respect.
I agree, an incredibly stupid idea. McCain and Powell would damage Bush's conservative base, doing more harm than good.
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