In this age of people closely scrutinizing which VP will bring in the best segment of voters and carefully weighing the options of different governors and delegates around the nation, I get to wonder: Cheney? Really? Doesn’t this dude creep everyone out? What mysterious Cheney-loving demographic was George reaching out to?
Cheney chose Cheney. Bush made Cheney the chairman of the board that was to find a VP for him. Cheney chose Cheney, I assume from a “the better to slip my hand up there and move his mouth in time with my words” point of view.
Because Bush didn’t want to be shot in the face.
Bush was regarded as young and inexperienced. Particularly inexperienced in foreign policy. IIRC, it came out during the campaign that he had never even traveled overseas. Cheney was supposed to be a wise old man on foreign policy, lending gravitas to the youngster.
Of course, that was before 9/11, before most people knew that Cheney had it in mind to plunge us into Middle Eastern adventurism. (Remember the good old days when Bush was opposed to nation-building?)
Didn’t Cheney use the Agnew argument? No person out there can help you, so pick someone that won’t hurt you? George W Bush as the son of a former president, who had been assumed to run for president the day after George H W Bush was defeated, couldn’t add anyone to his ticket to actually help him. He didn’t wanted to pull a Dan Quayle. So, pick a person who has Washington experience but doesn’t have presidential ambition.
Bush was seen as a Washington outsider at the time. Young. Inexperienced. (Texas governor equals paperweight.) Naive. Cheney was a Washington insider, having held a variety of jobs. He added a certain legitimacy to the Bush campaign.
Yes, I know. It all sounds so… weird now.
At the time he was chosen, Cheney was really a formidable character among the Republican base. He had been Secretary of Defense during the Gulf War, giving him national security bona fides totally lacked by Bush. Cheney had also spent so much time in Washington as an insider, so he balanced out the outsider/insider argument.
And let’s get real: even though he uses his power for ends I oppose, he is a very effective political operator. In fact, I’d say he’s 10 times smarter than Karl Rove, whom everyone seems to think was the brains behind the White House. I’d say Cheney was the real deal in that respect.
Cheney needed to be close to George to keep him in thrall. The mind trick only works over a certain distance, no matter how weak the person’s mind.
Bush: “Ah think I’ll pick me a young Veep to groom for eight years from naw to continue ma’ legacy after Ah’ve been in affice for eight years”
Cheney [with hand wave]:“You need a wise old man with foreign policy knowledge to lend gravitas”
Bush: “Ah need a wise old man with foreign policy knowledge to lend gravit ass”
Cheney [with hand wave]:“Gravitas, you pronounce it gravitas”
Bush: “Gravitas, Ah pronounce it gravitas”
Cheney’s job has always been to control the presidency from behind the scenes, while the more “popular” Bush did as he was told. This of course started when Cheney selected himself to be vice president.
‘If only he’d used his power for niceness instead of evil.’
He was a pretty good choice (at least from the “getting Bush elected” perspective). He had everything Bush lacked, cred with conservative (Bush was seen as possibly too moderate in 2000), foreign policy experience, legislative experience. And while he isn’t charismatic, he does pretty well in debates. And a big part of Bush’s campaign in 2000 was that it didn’t matter if he was inexperienced, since he’d surround himself with experienced people. Cheney served as sort of a symbol of example of this.
If Obama is smart, he’ll choose a similar figure for his running mate (though hopefully without the evil).
“Cheney Lite™! Now with 35% less evil!”
heh. I think Jon Stewart’s America: The Book put it something like, “This oil-rich millionaire, Harvard and Yale educated, governor of a major state, son of a former President, ran in 2000 as a Washington outsider. People are still wondering how the fuck he pulled that off.”
My impression, at the time the selection was made, was that Cheney was an old Bush family friend, and it was probable that GHW Bush (W’s dad, the former prez) had something to do with the selection process. Cheney was, after all, defense secretary under GHW Bush, during the first arduously month-long Gulf War. Bush the Younger always seemed to surround himself with his dad’s old buddies.
I’d love to see you show this statement to be anything other than just your opinion.
Same thing for Rumsfeld. Old Washington hands who knew how the world works and who could get shit done. Then 9/11 changed everything…
Heh. I was going to post that. Only I’d already used my GD joke quota on the Maxwell Smart line.
Also wondering how George H.W. Bush, veteran of overseas service in WWII, director of the CIA, VPOTUS for 8 years, POTUS for four years with two foreign wars in his term, could have allowed his son to grow up so utterly ignorant of foreign policy, foreign affairs, and the entire world outside the United States.
Did you miss the news articles from 2001 to about 2006 or so that referred to Cheney as the first Prime Minister of the United States? The implication was that Cheney took care of the day to day business of running the country and Bush was responsible for the big picture stuff. I think that’s fairly close to what Frostillicus said.
I suppose I did. How’s about you link a few for me?
I found this curious and looked it up, it turns out that this is not true. From this link :
"Bush’s foreign travels have been limited to three visits to Mexico, two trips to Israel, a three-day Thanksgiving visit in Rome with one of his daughters in 1998 and a six-week excursion to China with his parents in 1975 when his father was the U.S. envoy to Beijing. Now, Bush is on a crash course in international affairs, receiving a daily intelligence briefing from the CIA. "
and from this site:
"George was not exactly what you would call well-traveled. Campaign staffers claimed that he had taken “more than a dozen” trips outside the U.S., although they admitted that the vague figure included “many, many” trips to Mexico and Canada.
Bush made a month-long excursion to China while his father was stationed there, which the New York Times summed up as “trying to date Chinese women (unsuccessfully) during a visit to Beijing in 1975.” He had visited Israel and Egypt with the National Governors Association, and also the African country of Gambia. Later on in the campaign, Bush staffers claimed that he has also visited England, Scotland, and Italy, as well as vacationed in France and Bermuda. This was not very impressive to the people of Europe, who have to cross international borders just to take their kids to Legoland. "
The last link, by the way, is a fun read.