[Still KETCHUP'N. --MS]
July 26, 2000
The Un-Clinton
By Peggy Noonan, a Republican speechwriter and a Journal
contributing editor.
"I'm feeling like a president." George W. Bush was standing
greeting New Yorkers before a speech 12 days ago in Manhattan.
He was tanned, smiling, looked like he'd been getting his jogging
in. A sinus infection that had left him gobbling Advil from New
Hampshire through South Carolina was finally gone. He was
feeling good.
I leaned toward him, not hearing in the hubbub, and he repeated
what he'd said. (Actually: "Uhm feeln lahk PRESSdint.") I had
written once of how his father had started to feel like the
president after election day 1988, that suddenly he was standing
straight and filling out his suit. I looked at his son, who
said, "That's what the primaries are for, in part. What the long
season is for." To give you time to become what you mean to be.
And he wanted it known he was becoming it.
***
I thought of that yesterday when Gov. Bush took the podium in
Austin, relaxed and in something like command. These days he's
Bush in bloom, expansive and settled, and the selection of Dick
Cheney reflects his new confidence. Some bad luck (a Concorde
down, a Mideast peace process gone bust) and some leaking (never
let your father call the doctor and expect the neighbors not to
hear) dulled the impact of the announcement, but it was still the
story of the day not only on its own terms but because of what it
revealed about Mr. Bush. He didn't choose someone who'll help
him win, he chose a man who'll help him govern. He is certain he
is going to win. He is thinking of the future.
Thus the choice. If you were president, Dick Cheney is precisely
the kind of man you'd want working down the hall. He was chief
of staff to President Ford a quarter century ago at the age of
34, was Wyoming's only congressman for six terms, was President
Bush's successful secretary of defense for four tumultuous years
encompassing a major war in the Persian Gulf. Talk about been
there, done that.
But he was not an obvious choice. He is the darling of no part
of the party, does not bring a big state, brings nothing to the
electoral college, is not a political pugilist and will not go
after the other team hammer and tong. No one has ever called him
a great campaigner, and he looks like one of those public
servants who find shaking hands on the stump mildly embarrassing,
if not germy. He brings nothing to the ticket but seriousness,
experience, integrity, maturity, wisdom, and a thoughtful
conservatism.
Mr. Cheney is the un-Clinton. Bill Clinton is dramatic, full of
sparks; he loves to pose reaching for hands and being engulfed in
the love of the people. Dick Cheney does not appear to want or
need public adoration. Those who know him say he will prove to be
a gifted debater, but I see no sign of that. He keeps his own
counsel and ponders, does not thrust and parry, does not love the
cha-cha of politics, the dance. That's why he wound up in public
service -- not what the Clintons and Kennedys call public
service, by which they mean politics, but real public service,
i.e., serving the public.
***
A small anecdote about a large facet of his personality. Once,
in the summer of 1992, I was invited to a dinner upstairs in the
White House. I'd never been there before, and wondered what I'd
see. I saw a handful of people talking politics, commenting on
the upcoming election, and sat near Dick Cheney, whom I did not
know and who was sitting quietly on a sofa listening to everyone.
He looked grave and friendly. President Bush's sister turned to
him and said she hoped he would someday write a book, and hoped
he was keeping a diary. He sort of winced, and looked down.
No, he said, "unfortunately you can't keep diaries in a position
like mine anymore." He explained that anything he wrote could be
subpoenaed or become evidence in some potential legal action.
"So you can't keep and recount your thoughts anymore." We talked
about what a loss this is for history. It concerned him. It was
serious; so is he. Then everyone started talking politics again.
***
There would be problems with any GOP vice presidential choice
because the media, who got one of the great stories of the 1980s
with "Dan Quayle is a numbskull," is looking for another good
story, and who's to blame them. It's summer, we need a good
story. The best shot with Mr. Cheney was touched on by a
weatherman on Fox News Tuesday morning who jokingly pointed to a
weather map full of clouds and rain and said, "Cheney fever is
sweeping the nation!"
He looks like a boring, white, middle-aged male Republican. And
though he's famous to some, he's wholly unknown to many and has
been out of the public eye through most of the 1990s. If you are
older than 45 or so you might think Dick Cheney is a gifted
public servant with a long history of dazzling achievement. If
you are in your 20s or 30s, he's a round guy with a bad ticker.
Mr. Cheney will have to be introduced to a significant portion
of the electorate.
And because he was famous long ago, and because even in his
mid-30s he had premature gravitas and seemed 50, a lot of people
think he's old. It is amazing to think he is only five years
older than George W. Bush. He seems five years older than Gov.
Bush's father. His cardiac problems will have to be addressed
clearly and honestly again and again. Doctors say he's fine
after his triple bypass, but a heart problem can be a political
problem. It didn't help Bill Bradley. It didn't hurt Lyndon
Johnson, however: He had a massive heart attack three years
before JFK chose him as vice president. He got out of the
hospital, stopped smoking, lost weight, and a year into his own
active presidency people had forgotten he'd ever been sick.
***
The not-so-secret weapon, and the growing story will be Mr.
Cheney's wife, Lynne Vincent Cheney, who is something new as a
vice presidential spouse. She will probably be somewhat
controversial, not in the usual tabloidy way of vice president's
wives -- "Betty Ford's Addiction," "Tipper's Secret Agony" -- but
because she is an authentic intellectual, a scholar engaged in
the culture wars, a brilliant writer and thinker with a Ph.D.
in British literature (her dissertation was on Matthew Arnold).
She has operated the past 20 years not through the power derived
from a successful husband but through her own independent
efforts. She was head of the National Endowment for the
Humanities, and wrote "Telling the Truth," about the tendency of
modern academia to allow politically correct thinking to shroud
and obscure the truth. As the second lady, she will be news.
Mrs. Cheney is currently at work on a book about problems in
public education, including fuzzy math, creative spelling and the
abandonment of phonics. Maybe later we will finally get a White
House memoir written by a principal that is not only informative,
but literature.
Looks like she's the un-Clinton, too.
The choice of Dick Cheney seems so grounded, mature and
constructive that, as a citizen, I am astonished. An adult has
been picked for an adult job. We appear to be entering a new era.
Perhaps it will be called the restoration.
=================================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
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