Cheney

last updated 8 January 2015

George Bush may have a likely successor after all, said Bill Sammon in The Washington Times. His name is Dick Cheney. A 'œgrowing number of conservatives' are urging the vice president to reconsider his decision to retire from politics in 2008. Since he joined Bush as his running mate in 2000, Cheney has insisted that he has no interest in being president. People have always taken him at his word, especially because of his health and age—at 64, he's had four heart attacks. But now the Republican Party's conservative base is worried that there's no obvious candidate to carry on Bush's foreign and domestic policies. Sen. John McCain, Condoleezza Rice, and former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani, conservatives believe, are ideologically suspect. Sen. Bill Frist is a true conservative, but the book on him is that he's 'œtoo dull' to win a presidential election. That leaves Cheney, who is more Bush than Bush.

Cheney still claims he has no plans to run for president, said Fred Barnes in The Weekly Standard, but there's an easy way to change his mind. The president can publicly release Cheney from his pledge not to run, and anoint the vice president as his successor. It makes perfect sense: Bush is a savvy politician, and he knows full well that Cheney is the best bet to protect and expand upon the legacy of his two terms in office. What a shame to let a Democrat, or a wishy-washy Republican, erase all that Bush has done. And Cheney is nothing if not loyal. If Bush says he wants Cheney to run, 'œmy guess is that Cheney would be hard-pressed to say no.'