McCain sings Cheney’s praises
LANSING, Mich. – If Vice President Dick Cheney needed a testimonial to quiet the talk about his future on the Republican ticket, GOP Sen. John McCain provided it Friday, introducing him to Michigan voters as “indispensable, very debonair” and “not just another pretty face.”
McCain, the maverick Republican who often has been at odds with his GOP brethren – starting with President Bush – joined Cheney to stump for the presidential ticket in the swing state that narrowly went for Democrat Al Gore in 2000.
As the buzz in Washington continued about whether Cheney would be off the ticket, the Arizona lawmaker effusively described Bush’s No. 2, tracing his career in public service from previous Republican administrations to the U.S. House to defense secretary during the 1991 Persian Gulf War to the post-Sept. 11 era.
“He is in effect deputy commander in chief,” McCain said of Cheney, who some Democratic critics contend is really calling the shots in the White House. “We are very fortunate the president relies on the counsel of this man,” McCain added, praising Cheney’s “resolve, experience, patriotism,” and calling him “indispensable and very debonair.”
While some smiled at those comments, the line that drew laughs from the crowd of some 1,000 was McCain’s allusion to the other vice presidential candidate, Democratic Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, who has been among People magazine’s sexiest men.
Said McCain of Cheney: “He is not just another pretty face.”
Playing off that riff, Cheney poked fun at his looks, balding with a bit of paunch. “Everybody said Senator Edwards got picked because he’s sexy, good-looking and charming. I said, ‘How do you think I got this job?’ “
Humor aside, the Bush-Cheney campaign has taken seriously the stories speculating about whether Bush would drop Cheney. One Republican, former New York Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, suggested that either McCain or Secretary of State Colin Powell would be a good replacement for Cheney.
Matthew Dowd, chief strategist for the campaign, issued a strategy memo Friday citing polls that show most Americans want Cheney to remain on the ticket. Dowd also pointed to polls that show Cheney’s favorability ratings have remained unchanged since the start of the year.
The National Annenberg Election Survey conducted recently found that 66 percent of Republicans questioned say Cheney should stay while 24 percent said choose someone new. A survey of New York Republicans, released Friday by Siena College Research Institute, found that more than one-in-four say they think Cheney will be a drag on the ticket.
Cheney used the campaign stop in Michigan, where polls show Bush and rival John Kerry locked in a tight race, to criticize the Democrat. He gave a slight variation on the campaign stump speech he’s delivered in the past.
“These are not times for leaders who shift with the political winds, who say one thing on one day and something else the next. And that brings to mind our opponents,” Cheney said. “Senator Kerry’s position on big issues often depends on when you ask him.”
Manning canoes and kayaks, protesters from the Sierra Club of Michigan took to the Grand River flowing beside the Lansing Center to criticize the Bush administration’s environmental record.
Cheney’s visit Friday was his third to Michigan in six weeks. McCain was returning to the scene of one of his 2000 presidential campaign triumphs; he won Michigan’s GOP primary and remains popular with voters across the political spectrum.