Democrat Vacuum

From Editor and Publisher:

Woodward Calls Cheney a 'Serious' Dark Horse for 2008 Run for White House

By E&P Staff

Published: May 15, 2005 11:50 PM ET

NEW YORK A trial balloon for a Cheney for President run in 2008 is being launched by a surprising source, Washington Post star reporter (and White House insider) Bob Woodward.

Appearing on Chris Matthews' NBC talk show on Sunday, Woodward labeled Vice President Cheney “a serious dark horse candidate.” He said that with "a number of people" going for the GOP nomination, “a guy named George Bush might come out and say ‘What about Dick?’"

Woodward observed that "there's a serious vacuum right now," with Senators Frist, Brownback, and Allen leading the field, some say.

There may be a precedent for this. Cheney, who was put in charge of finding a suitable VP candidate in 2000, ended up getting the nod himself.


Is Bob Woodward living in a vacuum?

Woodward's suggestion that Vice President Cheney is a "serious dark horse candidate" for president in 2008 borders on the psychotic. There may be somewhat of a vacuum in terms of potential candidates right now; but I wouldn't consider that a problem, since President Bush is just less than four months into his second term.

Most importantly, Dick Cheney has made it clear that he will not run for the presidency.

At this time last year, Democrats were predicting that Cheney would step aside so Bush could replace him with someone less polarizing. They believed Cheney was so detrimental to the Republican ticket that Bush would dump him. That, of course, didn't happen, neither did other loony forecasts, such as Teresa Heinz Kerry's expectation that the administration had bin Laden in custody and was waiting to announce his capture as an October surprise.

Now, Woodward considers Cheney the dark horse to grab the 2008 nomination. That's utterly ridiculous. He can't be serious! I think it's all more of a fantasy for Woodward than anything else. I bet when he's asleep, Woodward murmurs, "Halliburton, Halliburton, Halliburton...."

He's right that there is a serious vacuum; but it's not among the Republicans. The vacuum exists in the Democrat party--no ideas, no integrity.