Cheney Reminds Voters Why Romney is Another Palin by Calling Palin a Mistake

Last updated on July 31st, 2012 at 11:14 am

Calling McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin for his Vice Presidential candidate a “mistake”, Dick Cheney told ABC News that there are two lists: the big list and the small list. The small list is active consideration, and the question is, ‘is this person capable of being President of the United States?’ He said the candidate’s being able to bring in a demographic shouldn’t override the “being ready” test.

Cheney based his 2012 assessment of Palin not being ready based on her short time as Governor, which is odd given that by many accounts, Romney pulled a Palin on Massachusetts after his party lost the mid-terms, only as is Romney’s style, he didn’t have the guts to announce that he was quitting.

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Cheney said, “I like Governor Palin. I’ve met her. I know her. She – attractive candidate. But based on her background, she’d only been governor for, what, two years. I don’t think she passed that test…of being ready to take over. And I think that was a mistake.”

So a two year governor isn’t ready, and yet:

W. Mitt Romney was basically on vacation the entire last two years of his term of Governor of Massachusetts. He pulled a Palin, only he never announced it.

It all started when W. Mitt bet heavily on his party taking over in the midterms in an attempt to set himself up for his 2008 run. Republicans lost big. It was a “stunning defeat” for Romney according to the Boston Globe. Instead of fighting, Romney just gave up and walked away from the job. In the last year of his term, he ended up spending on average more than 4 days out of the week traveling to drum up support for his 2008 White House bid.

Cheney is full of the usual Republican hot air, working hard to get Romney elected now. That’s why he’s distancing himself from the Palin pick. He put his foot in his mouth in stating his reason, though, as his logic only further paints Romney as less charismatic and more disappointing 2012 Palin.

Back in 2008, Cheney said there was no reason why Palin couldn’t be a successful VP, but now he says that the fact that she was only governor for two years was the problem. Was he unaware of that fact in 2008?

Dick Cheney — the polarizing vice president who missed his party’s conclave in St. Paul, Minn., last week because he was conveniently out of the country — still had time to check out Palin’s big speech to the gathering and declared it “superb.”
Our colleague Johanna Neuman, over at the Countdown to Crawford blog, has more on what Cheney has to say about the woman who hopes to succeed him, including his evaluation that there’s “no reason” Palin “can’t be a successful vice president.”

Cheney had more of a hand in the picking of Palin than he admits now – and why not? She appeared to be another easily malleable George W Bush at the time. Look how easy it was for Cheney to get Palin to switch from her populist AGIA stand to cheap crony for big oil in 2007:

It turns out that in January of 2007 just months before AGIA was finalized, then Vice President Dick Cheney had contacted Palin to urge her to draw in big oil companies to her pipeline project. One wonders in retrospect just what enticing words of encouragement he offered Palin about her national opportunities should she pull this off.

After meeting with Cheney, MSNBC reported, “As the governor’s approach unfolded in the spring of 2007, there were signs it was skewed in a different direction.”

Palin’s pipeline was a costly disaster, and it could have really been something great for Alaska had she kept to her guns instead of allowing Cheney to dangle a national role in return for catering to big oil.

We can’t forget that John McCain said that he thought Sarah Palin was the better candidate when choosing between her and Mitt Romney. Was it because of what he saw in Romney’s tax returns or was it Romney being everything John McCain can’t stand – a weak coward who stands for nothing? At least Sarah Palin stood for something. That’s something Mitt Romney can’t claim.

But what really makes Cheney look disingenuous here is that he said this on the heels of the British press declaring that Romney is worse than Palin. It seems that the former VP is using Palin to do damage control for Romney, instead of taking a gutsy stand on Palin, as the pundits surmised he was doing.

A gusty stand would have been for Cheney to say this back in 2008. It’s not gutsy to use Sarah Palin as a get out of jail free card for Mitt Romney. And here’s a newsflash for Dick: Romney can’t possibly make the same mistake McCain did, because Romney is the mistake.

Romney can’t handle the press, just like Palin. Romney doesn’t seem to be able to open his mouth without inserting his foot, just like Palin. Romney repeatedly answers questions with a “you don’t need to know” defense hiding his lack of policy knowledge. Romney plays to the worst in America just like Palin. Romney is a coward, just like Palin. Romney has no specific policy ideas, and fills up that empty space with lot of negative things to say about Obama’s very existence, just like Palin.

And just like Palin, Romney nurses what he sees as unfair wounds by the press by doubling down on secrecy and bunkering at Fox News.

Dick Cheney is the same as he’s always been: a puppet master in search of weak people he can control. He and Grover Norquist agree that Mitt Romney is that weak person who will do as he’s told once elected.

In what way would Dick Cheney honestly be able to say that Mitt Romney appears ready to be President? John McCain didn’t think he was ready to be VP, Britain said Michelle Obama was giving a masterclass in statesmanship that Romney should be watching, and now Romney is stumbling his way through the tricky waters of Israel, changing plans by the hour in order to accommodate the wishes of foreign leaders – sort of like taking orders from other countries, only without the responsibility.

We all knew Sarah Palin was a mistake, way back in 2008. But back then, Dick Cheney was praising her as ready. So today when he tells you that Mitt Romney is ready and Sarah Palin was a mistake, what are his words worth?

I can’t help but find Cheney’s posturing as a “truth-teller” on Palin’s back four years too late teeming with the cowardice I expect from him. Where was he in 2008, and why is he now pushing a man he should know isn’t ready to be President? Even Newsweek is calling Mitt Romney a wimp.

See, if Cheney were really being daring here, he’s be able to discern the difference between a resume and the inherent traits of a good leader. Sarah Palin wasn’t ever going to be ready to be VP, because she had no interest in learning anything necessary to do the job. It wouldn’t have mattered if she were governor for four years. And isn’t that what we just saw in Romney, who failed to even learn the most basic protocol regarding addressing foreign leaders?

And speaking of short gubernatorial terms, Mitt Romney is described as basically quitting on Massachusetts after his party lost the mid-terms. That must mean that Cheney also thinks Romney isn’t ready.

Sarah Jones

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