By Lee Cullum, KERA 90.1 commentator
Dallas, TX – Why is Dick Cheney not wearing well? In the Persian Gulf War, he seemed an excellent Secretary of Defense; calm, sensible, trustworthy. But his self assurance, once so reassuring, now seems overbearing in its certitude. If you are as convinced that you - and only you - are right as the Vice President is, you'd better be right. You'd better call the shot correctly.
And Dick Cheney has been disturbingly wrong, about the economy if former Secretary of Treasury Paul O'Neill can be believed, and especially about Iraq. Leaving out his misjudgment about weapons of mass destruction, which was, after all, shared by many, I'm troubled instead by his insistence on rushing ahead with the attack, then meddling in the planning for the aftermath of war. According to James Fallows in the Atlantic Monthly, Cheney refused to allow the appointment of a person deemed critical to the effort. This, I suspect, has been the pattern all along.
Dick Cheney no longer seems to me sensible. Perhaps it's because his great calm has about it the settled aura of someone who doesn't listen. If he cares about the re-election of the president, he should withdraw from the ticket, citing his health, and make way for someone who can really help.
Who might that person be? George W. Bush has a twin problem. First, he selected Cheney for the tacit purpose of compensating for his own inexperience. Now the voters have come to expect not just a president-in-waiting, like the first George Bush was to Reagan or a partner as Al Gore was to Clinton, but a senior, powerful, wise counselor. Second, it means a lot to George W. Bush to have a running mate who does not want to be president. That rules out some impressive talent, including Rudy Giuliani, who politically would be a brilliant choice.
The one who best satisfies both specifications is Colin Powell. He might not appeal to the religious right, but he would add to the ticket a necessary shift in tone. Einstein once said that no problem can be solved by the same consciousness that created it. It has been the destiny of George W. Bush to respond to September 11th. That response may well require another term. But if there is to be a second Bush administration, it will be important to replace the consciousness of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. Then perhaps our fortunes in Iraq will improve also.
As for John Kerry, I doubt he'll go for John Edwards. "Why look South?" - as Kerry himself once asked. It rarely works for the Democrats any more, though Clinton did carry a few Southern states. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is an interesting idea, appealing to Hispanics and the Southwest. But the battleground states are in the Midwest. That's where the tale will be told, even more than in Florida. One thought would be Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, a moderate Democrat whose main problem would be feminist opposition to his vote for partial-birth abortion. Also, Indiana tends to vote Republican for president so Bayh's appeal throughout the region would need to be poll tested.
Another approach would be to go the Bush route, ignore geography, and tap a senior, powerful, wise councilor such as David Boren of Oklahoma or Sam Nunn of Georgia, both former senators. Or there's always Dick Gephardt of Missouri or Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, a state carried unexpectedly by Bush four years ago. And of course, let's not forget the junior senator from New York, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who would truly be a president-in-waiting.
Lee Cullum is a frequent contributor to the Dallas Morning News and to KERA.