Cheney in 2012?

At first when I heard Ross Douthat, the new conservative op-ed writer at the New York Times, had suggested that the GOP should have run Dick Cheney as the presidential candidate in 2008, I thought he was another ridiculous right-winger. I thought he was seriously going to argue that Cheney would have won. But it turns out he had a different point, a very interesting point.

Douthat's argument was that no one represents the conservative viewpoint in America better than Cheney does. So, if you really want a litmus test of whether the Republican Party is losing elections because they are too far left or too far right, what better way of doing that than running the man who best represents the right?

This way, if he had won, we would have found out the Rush Limbaughs and Sean Hannitys of the world were right. The problem with the Republican Party had been that they were being too soft and moderate. No one is harder than Cheney. But if he lost, they could get it through their thick skulls that the country is not that far right and the Republican Party erred by going too far away from the American middle.

But you know, it's not too late! Why not run him in 2012? He'd be younger than John McCain was when he ran in 2008. Cheney certainly seems lively and engaged in the national debate now. It's not like he's withdrawn from national politics. In fact, you might be hard pressed to find a more prominent Republican leader right now.

The only reason I can think that the Republicans wouldn't run him as their dream conservative candidate is that they know they are full of shit. They are perfectly aware that Cheney would get slaughtered, eviscerated, destroyed, pwned and waterboarded by almost any Democrat in a national election, let alone the widely popular Obama.

These conservative talk show hosts claim that the Republican Party does not defend its positions forcefully enough. They certainly can't say that of the former vice president. He's out there defending torture and intensely aggressive foreign policy every week.

If you ask me, it looks like he is pleading with Al Qaeda to hit us again so that he can be proven "right" in his mind. It seems like he's trying to send a not so subtle message to Osama bin Laden to strike so that he could run around gloating that we were hit as soon as we stopped torturing people. But that's not how the right sees it. They think he's doing God's work out there, defending the seemingly indefensible. And that he is the one man trying to keep this country safe. Ok, great. Then have at it, hoss.

Why not run on this ideology in 2012? Use the same fear tactics Bush used twice, that the conservative talk show hosts love and see if you can get the American people to buy into it. Do you believe or don't you? If torture rocks so much, why don't you get its biggest advocate to defend it and fight for it on the campaign trail?

Come on, I dare you. I triple dog dare you. Make the most conservative man in America your candidate, if you got the guts. You're not going to back down from a battle of ideas, are you? You're not going soft on us, are you? Come on, do it! Run Cheney in 2012. Make our day.

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Mostly cause his health would be questioned by the press (but nothing else)

 

If he runs next time it'll be Cheney/Iron Lung '12

 

lolcheney 

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lolwut

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lolcheney 

 

Post script: And wut's up with Chris 'Hardballs' Matthews pronouncing it Dick "Cheen-ee"? lolwut is up with that

 

by Perry on 05/12/2009 12:50:11 PM EST

No way Cenk..eviscerated or not he simply won't live long enough to run.

"Freedom is important to Republicans as long as someone else pays for it on the battlefield and on April 15th."

by MRFred on 05/12/2009 01:26:23 PM EST

He's not someone people like or respect as a human being. Even if conservatism is right it needs a friendly face or people won't buy it.

by nmaks on 05/12/2009 04:11:36 PM EST

Even in the most idealistic sense, it has been a complete fucking disaster. How have they kept us safe? We have already lost more people in the wars than we did on 911. What about the people that will die from gutting the environmental regulations or loss of healthcare, let alone from other economic side effects of the second republican great depression in 100 years.
The people we needed to be kept safe from were not the terrorist but the neo-con cabal that has been at the heart of every disastrous domestic and foreign policy decision going back to the 1970’s. Did you know it was Dick and Wolfy who started the Pakistani and Iranian nuclear programs back in the 1970’s. At the same time Bush was head of the CIA. It’s been downhill ever since.

Dick is a terrorist, the worlds biggest terrorist. Anyone who has him on should be considered a terrorist sympathizer.

We seem to be having this conversation in a vacuum, isolated from the other 100 forest fires this fucking criminal set. He should be shot, hung, and tired repeatedly, in any order.

by sisco66 on 05/13/2009 12:11:19 AM EST

Even though the standard bearers of the neo-con charge to failure have all been old white guys, once they saw they were being beaten by Hillary and Obama they immediately ran out and grabbed female/ethnic candidates of their own.

For decades people have been trying to get the GOP to join the 20th Century and it took getting their hats handed to them the last few election cycles for them to decide to change.

They'll won't run Cheney but you can guarantee they'll run a female and/or ethnic candidate in 2012.

"People who boast of ancestry often have little else to sustain them." LL

by Robrob on 05/13/2009 12:28:04 AM EST

loves his country; what he loves is this country remade in his image of a unitary executive.  He has no need of money according to the porcine potentate of radical right-wing rhetoric; he stole all he could ever need from the US taxpayer.  The man who Dick Cheney throws under the bus in deference to the fat, turd sucking, hillbilly heroin addict no longer represents the current conservative party.  But here's the slug, Pat Buchanan, who during the presidential campaign declared Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama only made due to race, defending the usually hidden bunker dweller on Hardball against Chris Matthews and Lawrence O'Donnell.  How low can those poll numbers go --- what's that crawling around under the rock, under the whale shit, at the bottom of the ocean --->

by gatekeeper50 on 05/13/2009 01:02:59 AM EST

"only made due to race"

The logic of this escapes me. It is tantamount to saying the only reason anyone voted against Obama was because of race.

"People who boast of ancestry often have little else to sustain them." LL

by Robrob on 05/13/2009 01:12:40 AM EST

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