The "Old" Dick Cheney

Remove all ads!

Interesting video which was emailed to me from Moveon.org. Dick Cheney sounds rational in this video regarding a supposed occupation of Iraq. I wonder what happened to him? Cheney

 

Wow. I thought more people would have something to say about this. Thanks for posting the link.

 

I'd seen this on YouTube last week. I'd consider posting it here, but didn't think many here would care. He's just a subordinate, after all.

 

As do I, Monty - I was being facetious. It was more in response to people who seem to think Bush really is "the decider" and that this administration's policies are all his idea, his agenda, and thereby dismiss any suggestions that Rove, Cheney, and Rumsfeld were really the ones running the show. Which is of course absurd to even the most casual of obvservers.

Sidenote: one wonders if Kerry would have won in 2004 had his campaign not been so inept and dug this video up back in the summer of '04 when it would have mattered. The "flip-flopper" nonsense would have died a pretty quick death, I think.

But then again, maybe I'm forgetting that "9/11 changed everything."

 

I'd put it that Bush is indeed the decider and that there is agreement with him and Cheney that Cheney runs the boring, nerdish stuff — exceeding five pages of reading and requiring an attention span of 15min or more — and of course sais and does all the things Bush can't put his name on.

That doesn't preclude Cheney from having an agenda of his own, and that Bush at times doesn't follow his lead. Sure, Cheney does 'massage' Bush's brain regularly and often succeeds in getting Bush's approval. But Bush has the last word, make no mistake.

 

@ Rags,

I hate to shatter the image you have of the iron-fisted Bush, but by all accounts - those who've worked for him, with him, and even against him - this is probably the most apt description of how the "decider" does his..."deciding." Just imagine Bush here instead of Arnie.

If I convince you of a particular course of action in a given situation, of which you yourself have very little knowledge, have personally done no actual research and are not particularly interested in to begin with, while at the same time having full confidence in me to provide you with the best possible information and outcome, you'd think you were in control of things if you, as the authority figure, proudly put your stamp of approval on it. But you'd be wrong. I'd have just manipulated you into doing what I wanted you to and you'd take all the blame if it went south (and conversely, all the credit if it went well).

So while he does have the last word, by surrounding himself with people who do all the heavy thinking for him, he's removed all possible significance from said "last word."

 

No, not iron fisted. Just that he has the last word. Even if he has to scribble it under an unread bill. But scribble it he does. And that's not just a technicality, but a declaration of personal responsibility. I believe that when Bush sais he is the decider guy who is to decidify, he is dead serious.

In my reading it would be very much in character for Bush to at times intentionally block Cheney just to re-assert himself. That streak also shows in Bush giving nicks to his subordinates.

And of course, Bush's group-thinkers are notorious for not representing him with choices he would refuse anyway. And still, I wouldn't underestimate Bush's personal involvement in key issues - especially as far as secret executive orders are concerned.

 

The exact same evidence that you would have to use to support this statement can also be used to support the statement made by DR and others - that others do the deciding and Bush just goes along. And while based on said evidence I would be inclined to say either theory is equally likely, everything else I've seen - Bush in private interviews with journalists (if you can call them that), some of his outbursts, the things he says when he doesn't realise the microphone is still on - all lead me to believe that the only deciding he ever did was in picking his aides. After that, everything he does is blindly trusting in whatever plan they give him. I doubt he really cares about most issues anyway - and if he does, he certainly doesn't show it.

 

It is just to simple and pleasing to think him the ever bumbling idiot. He is certainly more than that, though clearly not a great man, much less a great thinker.

 

I don't think of him as a bumbling idiot. You do need a certain degree of intelligence and savvy to attain such a position, regardless of how much help you get along the way. No, I see him as an easily-manipulated, intellectually lazy everyman who's gotten in way over his head in just about every measurable respect. Bush is certainly charismatic, and I do believe his heart is generally in the right place. But he's been taken for a ride by the people around him, that much is certain.

He's no bumbling idiot, you're right. But he's not too far off. I could have forgiven a bumbling idiot. And I assure you, especially from my perspective, there's nothing pleasing about it. The depths to which I'm ashamed for my country every time he opens his mouth isn't something I care to elaborate on.

 

GWB's problem is not that he's an idiot but that he is an arrogant ideologue. He has a pre-conceived notion of how the world should be and the reality has to fit his preception of how things should be. Almost nothing he says has a real test grounded in reality. He is the spoiled frat-brat of an ex-president who felt that he was entitled to be prez because of who he was, not because of his accomplishments.

I don't know what the deal is with Cheney but he sounded rational in the clip dated 1994. Now, he sounds like an arrogant ideologue, much like his boss. Is it the GWB effect?

 

GWB has lots of problems, including his belief that God talks to him and made him president.

Speaking of the old Cheney, how many were aware that back in the '80s he'd commonly remark--in private--on the political benefits of small wars?