For you -
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."
Give it to the Democrats to round out and balance their ticket:
A prosecutor together with a trial lawyer.
Sure you're not exaggerating there?
"a lot of those to be nukes"
Would you prefer coal fired?
"he believes every consumed watt is sacred like Rush"
Without watts there would be no Free Republic.
"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."
YOU ARE SO RIGHT ON. I CAN'T IMAGINE THE BUSH/CHENEY PEOPLE LETTING THIS "GIFT" GO UNUSED IN THE FALL CAMPAIGN. BUT THEN, IMHO, THEY HAVE LET SOME GOODS THAT COULD DAMAGE THE DEMS LIE SILENT IN THE WHITE HOUSE. THE PREZ SHOULD HAVE JUMPED ON THE BRITISH INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE'S DEBUNKING OF THE WILSON LIES LIKE UGLY ON AN APE. BUT, IN A PRESS CONFERENCE LAST WEEK, EVEN WHEN PRODDED BY ONE REPORTER THAT WILSON OWES THE PREZ AND THE NATION AN APOLOGY, SCOTT MCCLELLAND WIMPED OUT BY SAYING (NUMEROUS TIMES): "THOSE REPORTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES". PULEEEEEEZE!!
Sure, more is better. Every watt consumed is a watt invested! :-P
Yes
Nor porn.
"And my God man, he's got a gay daughter!"
I'VE NEVER HEARD ANYONE BUT YOU BRING THAT SUBJECT UP. ARE YOU INTIMATING THAT THE GOP IS A BUNCH OF GAY HATING, FAG BASHING SKIN HEADS OR ARE YOU JUST IN NEED OF SOME INTENSE THERAPY?
"Edwards - half the Congressional experience of Dan Quayle with none of Quayle's gravitas."
Worth repeating and remembering!
Lawyers make OK Senators, but Chief Executives belong in the Oval Office.
I think you're right, but this fact is often used by our opponents to chastise the President.
I have no problem with the fact that George Bush is hardly the most intelligent President we've ever had; in fact, I believe the ones that rely as much if not more on core conviction and intuition make the best Chief Executives...except for Teddy Roosevelt, who was both brilliant and a good Prez.
"Cheney called Mandela a terrorist... that makes him scum in my book.
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."
I'VE GOT NEWS FOR "GIRLIE MAN" NELSON MANDELA WAS ANS STILL IS A COMMUNIST.
How incredibly stupid! Cheney has more charm and charisma in his little finger than most people have in their entire bodies!
Sorry, sometimes I use upper case to differentiate between the quotes I refer to and my response. From now on, I will be a mixed case guy.
Kerberos agrees with you. His post was facetious, but perhaps not obvious enough.
Thanks. You saved me some typing. VP Cheney also mopped the floor with Lieberman during their debates.
"How do you think I got this job?" Cheney deadpans, adding after the laughter dies down: "Why is that funny?"
I love a dry sense of humor. Can't wait for the debates.
Hey, what about: "I never has sex with that woman"
or "I didn't inhale"
Come on ya gotta give credit where credit is due. LOL
For you -
Just cut and paste between the quotation marks(you don't need those)
See HTML Bootcamp, try HTML for a keyword.
"While Cheney's persona is as immutable as the rugged Grand Teton mountains near his Wyoming home,..."
Idiot, the "Big Breast Mountains) are clear across the state over near the pretty people and gilie men mecca, Jackson Hole.
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