A Close VP Shave, and You Gotta Ask ...
The suicide bombing that killed more than 20 at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan while Vice President Dick Cheney was visiting ... it had to make you wonder:
What would happen if anything happened to Dick Cheney? It's not an unreasonable question, or a cruel one. The man has a famously bad ticker, and now this.
Who might George W. Bush select as a successor to Cheney as vice president? Now ordinarily this could be a hot-ticket job, what with a presidential election coming up in less than two years. It might be considered an anointing of a Bush successor in the GOP ranks, a singling out of somebody to take the Republican reins and ride that horse to victory.
But with the Iraq war going on, and on, and on, the potential vice presidents might be inclined to run -- the other way. Consider Hubert H. Humphrey, who was already Lyndon Johnson's vice president when Johnson chose not to run for another term, leaving it to Humphrey to slog through the 1968 election with his boss' war slung around his neck like a particularly stinky albatross. The Democratic peace-party candidates lacerated him as a war surrogate. Even the perennial politician Richard Nixon was much more his own man, with a ``secret plan`` to end the war, than was Humphrey.
So who might Bush turn to in the event of such a loss? McCain? Giuliani? Maybe bring Bill Frist back into the lists? Bob Dole, again? Mitt ''at large'' Romney?
Or Jeb? Come to think of it, the job is so unappealing at present and so unpromising for the future that it might only be blood ties, not political ones, that could persuade anyone to take the job. Right, bro?
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Posted by: Rob McMillin | February 27, 2007 at 04:12 PM
The Republican Party is a complete mess because of Bush and so many of it's cover-up cheats, that it won't matter who would be VP.
The Democrats will take the White House, and more seats in Congress next time around.
The war has gone very bad, and Bush has no clue how to make it better.
Neither does any Republican.
Even those on the outside looking in like Giuliani are idiots.
In fact, Giuliani cheated on his wife while he was mayor of New York City.
AND GET THIS:
He even wanted his wife and girlfriend to both live with him at the same time while he was mayor.
His wife cheating was so out of hand, that New Yorkers were ready to run him out of town for this and other things.
He also did a bad job as mayor.
Then 9/11 came, and because he was New York City's leader, he became an instant hero.
If it were not for 9/11, Giuliani would be a New York joke to this day.
It is sad to think of him as one of the best of the Republicans.
McCain is a tired act.
Mitt does not have a big enough name.
So in the event of Cheney's job needing to be filled, I say leave it empty.
No one is qualified, and the VP job will be in the hands of a Democrat soon enough.
I am,
George Vreeland Hill
Posted by: George Vreeland Hill | February 27, 2007 at 06:41 PM
Perhaps Dan Quayle is tanned, rested and ready.
Posted by: Paul B | February 28, 2007 at 09:03 AM
Hmm. What happens if Cheney kicks the bucket?
National holiday?
Posted by: Jim H | February 28, 2007 at 01:41 PM