Cheney's Alternative Universe

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright August 4, 2012
All Rights Reserved.                                         

            Playing ABC News’ Jonathan Carl like a fiddle, 71-year-old former Vice President Dick Cheney continues to bash President Barack Obama, now comparing him to former President Jimmy Carter. Running on a new heart transplant, Cheney made good use of his new ticker, spewing the same vitriol winning him plaudits from the nation’s right wing.  In fairness to Carl, Cheney doesn’t grant interviews unless he controls the message, delivers unadulterated propaganda and romanticizes about how great things were when he was in office.  Cheney’s world holds Barack responsible for the collapse of the U.S. economy and a failed U.S. foreign policy overseas.  He now blames Obama for ending the Iraq War Dec. 14, 2011, a big mistake when you’re financially tied to the nation’s defense industry.  If only Obama had surged more troops in Iraq and Afghanistan he’d get Cheney’s vote.

            Cheney takes no responsibility for starting two wars and usurping the U.S. Treasury, sending the world’s most powerful economy into an epic tailspin in 2007 rivaling the Great Depression.  Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan compared the economic meltdown under Bush and Cheney to the Financial Panic of 1906, prompting creation of the Fed in 1913.  Greenspan estimated economic recovery would take years, perhaps a decade.  Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph I. Stiglitz blamed the crash on reckless spending on two wars, simultaneously passing Medicare Part D, the costly prescription drug bill.  Cheney likes to compare Obama to Jimmy Carter when, in fact, the nation was losing over 200,000 jobs a month during the waning days of the Bush-Cheney administration.  Cheney couldn’t wait to blame Barack the day he was sworn in Jan. 20, 2009.

            If Cheney compares Barack to Jimmy Carter, it’s appropriate to compare Bush to President Herbert Hoover who presided over the 1929 Stock Market Crash and Great Depression.  “Obviously, I’m not a big fan of President Obama,” Cheney told Carl, impeaching his own credibility.  Cheney can’t pinpoint exactly what he despises about Obama.  “I think he’s been one of our weakest presidents.  I fundamentally disagree with him philosophically.  You’d be hard put to find any Democratic president that I’ve disagreed with more,” said Cheney.  When Bush signed Medicare Part D into law Dec. 8, 2003, it was the largest government entitlement since Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare into law July 30, 1965.  Cheney can’t explain the philosophical difference with Obama, especially his vehement opposition to Barack’s health care overhaul legislation.

            Cheney reluctantly gives Obama any credit, even for hunting down and killing Osama bin Laden, something the Bush-Cheney administration couldn’t do.  “I wouldn’t say he’s been soft on terror, but I think he’s made a number of mistakes,” said Dick, not admitting that Obama has relentless pursued terrorists with the Pentagon’s Predator Drone Program, killing U.S.-born, Yemen-based al-Qaeda terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki Sept. 30, 2011.  “[Osama] bin Laden, fine.  A lot of that intelligence that laid the groundwork for what ultimately led to the capture of Bin Laden was a result of programs we had in place in the Bush administration,” said Cheney, taking that credit but completely ignoring his administration’s responsibility for the 2007-08 economic collapse.  Was it really weak of Obama to take a part of the $787 billion financial recovery bill Feb. 17, 2009 to bailout Detroit?

            Cheney sees irreconcilable differences with Obama yet now supports same-sex marriage.  When he was vice president pandering to evangelical voters he completely avoided the issue.  Cheney resented the media for bringing up his 32-year-old lesbian daughter, Mary, something he conveniently tucked away from public view.  “People should be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to enter into,” Cheney told Carl, showing remarkable philosophical symetry to Barack.  “At a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married,” Obama told ABC’s Robin Roberts May 9, 2012.  “It’s really no on else’s business in terms of trying to regulate or prohibit behavior [same-sex marriage] in that regard,” said Cheney, showing he’s on the same page as Barack.

            Cheney’s heart transplant has given him added strength to grab headlines and manipulate the media to advance his political agenda.  For someone that admits, “he’s not a big fan of President Obama,” he certainly shares the same propensity to extend more benefits to Medicare recipients and same-sex couples.  Cheney’s divergence with Barack has nothing to do with philosophical differences, only a desire to see his Party back in the Oval Office.  Pointing fingers at Obama for the country’s economic woes, Cheney totally ignores his role in breaking the U.S. economy.  Putting back the shattered pieces of the economy has been no easy task for Obama.  If Cheney had his way, he’d continue lavish spending on Iraq and Afghanistan the exact cause of the nation’s historic economic collapse.  Cheney’s comfortable giving interviews as long as he’s not asked real questions or asked to explain himself.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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