Vice-President Cheney for President

We have been privately promoting Vice-President Cheney as the person most qualified to be the next President of the United States. Today, the New York Sun makes the case. While it is very unlikely at this moment to see a scenario that would take Cheney to the White House, a significant terrorist event in or around the United States of America could alter the political landscape overnight. Stranger things have happened in American politics.

The vice president’s stature would put him instantly into the first rank of contenders on the Republican side. On Monday, speaking in Alabama, the vice president received such a warm greeting that he began his remarks by saying, “A reception like that is almost enough to make you want to run for office again.” It is hard to imagine the vice president did not comprehend how tantalizing such a remark would be. He used the same opening line on March 24 when he spoke to the leadership of the Republican Jewish Coalition. This is not an endorsement, and there are things we find attractive about many of the other candidates. But for those of us who are concerned with extending Mr. Bush’s campaign for freedom around the world and cutting taxes at home, a Cheney campaign is attractive.

In the same Alabama speech in which Mr. Cheney quipped about wanting to run for office again, he said, ” America is a good and an honorable country. We serve a cause that is right, and a cause that gives hope to the oppressed in every corner of this earth. We’re the kind of country that fights for freedom, and the men and women in that fight are some of the bravest citizens this nation has ever produced. The only way for us to lose is to quit. But that’s not an option. We will complete the mission, and we will prevail.” What a contrast to the carping over tactics that has infected some of the Republican field and to the fever among the Democrats for cutting off funds for our GIs and sounding a retreat.