A Heartbeat Away
I have yet to see any speculation on post-second term Republican candidacy, but it occurs to me to wonder what the GOP might already be considering regarding Dick Cheney. He’ll be 67 in 2008, 71 by the time his [first] term would be up, and his heart’s pretty dodgy, which could put him out of the running, but the usual turn of events has been for the VP to run following the second term. So what about Dick? Does the undisclosed location have special rejuvenation equipment keeping him fresh for his big campaign, or will they chance a run-off, potentially leaving a weaker candidate than an incumbent VP to face whomever the Democrats field then? Perhaps they don’t care, figuring it’ll be Hillary Clinton, and nobody’d vote for her anyway because she’s still that polarizing. Or will Cheney resign to “be with his family” two years down the line so that Bush can put in a more viable successor? Cheney’s agenda has never seemed to include a run for the Presidency, and even recently he’s expressed no desire for the job, although that could just be disingenuousness. He does fit the Republican bill, outside of the fundamentalism of the incumbent’s support base, insofar as he’s got big-business credentials and an extremist tendency towards laissez-faire micro-economics. Is there anything in the Constitution about not electing a brain in a jar?