Go Dodgers, Instead

6 October 2004


Cheney-Edwards Joint Press Conference Bordered on Irrelevant

The joint press conference held at Case Western Reserve University by the number two men on the Democratic and Republican tickets last night was over-hyped. While it is true that both men are quite capable, persuasive in their own way, and think quickly on their feet, no one is going to vote for a vice-presidential candidate if he doesn’t like the man on the top of the ticket. And besides, there were baseball play-offs to watch instead.

Watching the vested-interests try to position their gladiators was more than amusing. Somehow the world was supposed to believe that Senator Edwards would be in over his head in a one-on-one discussion of the issues. The man is a millionaire many times over because he is good at convincing jurors that his cause is right – jurors who are just like many of the people who watched at home. He wasn’t talking to Mr. Cheney or moderator Gwen Ifill; he was addressing the jury at home.

Mr. Cheney, meanwhile, was cast as Darth Vader’s angry grandfather (a description taken from elsewhere, but suitably apt). The eminence grise of the Bush administration is not a charming, telegenic fellow. Instead, he is one of the most effective politicians and administrators of his generation. That is not necessary good – his grip on policy is driven by ideological, rose-colored glasses. “Reagan proved deficits don’t matter” is one of his more ridiculous beliefs. Throw in a persistent insistence that Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein worked together, despite a shrieking absence of evidence, and it might be better if he were less effective. His performance did prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the GOP ticket is bottom-heavy.

The attempt by Mr. Cheney to paint Senator Edwards as part of the healthcare problem because he is a successful ex-trial lawyer resonated only in the Amen-corner. What likely hit a broader audience was the counter that Halliburton, Inc., has benefited from having its former CEO as vice-president. Just why was its contract in Iraq a “no-bid” deal? That will stir up a goodly portion of people who believe the war was for the benefit of big business – the old George Wallace vote.

A man who held the job of vice-president under FDR, John Nance Garner, said the job was “not worth a bucket of warm piss” (usually misquoted for family audiences and high schools textbooks as “not worth a bucket of warm spit” – a marginal improvement) and that accepting the job was "the worst damn fool mistake I ever made." In the end, though, the three baseball games marking the start of the play-offs were a bigger deal to a lot of people. At least there, everyone understands the rules, and there is a clear winner.

© Copyright 2004 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.

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