I Want You
to take a hike
Posted on 07/13/2004 8:44:20 PM PDT by Utah Girl
There is really only one way that President Bush can break the electoral stalemate that threatens to divide the nation evenly in the election of 2004: He can put Colin Powell on his ticket for vice president and ask Vice President Dick Cheney to become secretary of State.
Cheney, who deserves the nation’s thanks for his strong leadership during the war on terror, can best help his boss by encouraging him to reshape his ticket in such a way as to put victory within his grasp. The first vice president since Sen. Alben Barkley (D-Ky.) to take office devoid of presidential ambition, Cheney has served his nation well. As secretary of state, he would continue to lend a guiding hand to our foreign policy and the critical negotiations that loom with Iran and North Korea.
It is not so much the Edwards candidacy that must impel a Powell nomination. But Bush, Cheney and the other leaders of the Republican Party must grasp that the Democratic Party’s growing strength is largely the product of its demographic lock.
With African-Americans casting 12 percent of the vote in high turnout years and splitting 8-1 in favor of the Democrats, Bush and any Republican find themselves in a close battle just to break even. The Hispanic-American vote, closing in on 12 percent as well, adds to the GOP conundrum by breaking 2-1 for the Democrats.
A Powell candidacy would smash that Democratic stranglehold on our electoral math. The popular former general would stand to improve the Republican Party’s standing with both minorities, likely cutting the Democratic margin among blacks to a more reasonable size and increasing the GOP’s appeal to Hispanics as well.
The designation of Colin Powell would be widely popular among white voters, too. His rags-to-riches story, his humble roots, and his public and private integrity will appeal to voters across the racial and partisan divides. If Bush wins and Powell becomes vice president, imagine the impact on the futures all the black children in America when they can look up and see an African-American in the second highest position in our nation.
While Cheney has lent his considerable skill to the effective and dramatic American response to Sept. 11, he does not bring George Bush a single vote he would not otherwise have had. His presence on the ticket carries no state and only reinforces the already solid Republican right for the president. Indeed, Bush is just as popular as his vice president is among his core loyalists. Were Cheney to remain in the administration as secretary of state, he would do as much as he does now to reassure people about where Bush’s heart really lies.
In 1992, Cheney was vital to Bush’s success. His gray hairs were needed and his Washington experience of value to the new president who lacked both. But now that Bush’s coiffure has acquired more than a tint of gray — as has every president’s after four years in that miserable job — and he has mastered the ways of the Capital, Cheney’s presence on the ticket is no longer of any political value.
Would Powell accept a proffer of the vice presidency? He has never turned down a request by his nation to serve in his life and is unlikely to start now. The premium he places on service to his country is old-fashioned and refreshing. The ethic he embodies of selfless service to his nation and to its presidents of either party, above politics and personal ambition, casts one’s memory back to earlier generals who stood by their country in peace and in war — George Marshall if not George Washington himself.
Bush needs to shake things up to avoid a cliffhanger election in 2004. He has got to alter dramatically the political landscape as a Powell designation would surely do.
Your DU talking points don't pass muster around here.
You are a lost, period.
You're joking right?
I just saw its sign up date. I spent two posts on it too. What a waste of time.
Amen to Bush/Rice but only if Cheney pulled himself out. Bush will not pull the plug on him. Guaranteed.
Gee you like me, you really like me.
Condi bump.
Cheney *ROCKS*
Dick Morris...remind me. When was the last time he was right about anything?
Dr.Rice is a smart public servant and works well within the Bush administration as NSA. But she isn't VPOTUS material.
No, you are correct!
Dick Morris is tossing out 12% is really closer to 11% for the black USA population as now 13% American hispanic citizens have bumped them down from the #1 minority spot.
Blacks actually register and vote in very low percentages compared to overall total percentage registering and actually voting.
Except in one black precinct in Fort Lauderdale Florida where they managed to vote about 108% of all registered blacks in that district!
She is TEN times the VPOTUS material as John Edwards is ( and John Kerry as far as that is concerned).
I don't understand these people who seem to think that Bush would benefit by having a pro-abortion running mate. I'm all the time hearing that Bush should have Condi or Guilliani and now Powell. All of them are pro-abortion I believe, and that would NOT be good for the president. What few fence sitters he might gain would be more than offset by the numbers he would lose from his base. In some ways, Dick Morris is pretty smart; in other areas he misses it completely.
The last thing we need is a RINO VP.
Well I guess, to you, that made a point of some kind.
Look,you may not realize it,or you may just be a damned troll,but all this codswallop,about how President Bush just has to dump Cheney,or he's going to lose,is LIBERAL/DEM/AGENTS PROVOCATUER propaganda.You've either gulped down this garbage as whole cloth,or you're a troll pushing it.
Dumping Cheney would make far more people angry as all get out,than it would please any supposed GOP voters,newbie.
President Bush is loyal and wouldn't do it,so all this irrational,illogical balderdash is stupid beyond belief.
There is absolutely NOBODY,who could replace Cheney and make the GOP ticket better.more electable.
You need to learn how to read.The poster's comments,that you replied to,had less than NOTHING to do with "primaries",but named two people whom the loonies want Cheney replaced with.Granted,Condi and Rudy were left out of the scenario,but so what?
The Bush/Cheney ticket will NOT "get clobbered come November"! Go tell your handlers that you failed your mission here. :-)
Well maybe you'd better speak to Terry McCawful, but something tells me Rice wouldn't be interested. Besides, this concerns the GOP, not the DNC.
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