Cheney and The New York Sun Rise Again
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Ross Douthat’s first column for the New York Times, “Cheney for President,” ponders the recent uptick in Dick Cheney’s visibility as evidence that he might have been better suited as the Republican’s candidate for president.
But while Douthat’s column paints the possibility of a Cheney candidacy as best considered only in retrospect, some on the right actually think that the former vice president should have been the GOP’s contender in 2008 — and advocated for such early on.
“Our own view is that Mr. Cheney just might have beaten Mr. Obama, particularly if he had broken with Mr. Bush on the bailout of the banks and the seizure of AIG and Fannie Mae, actions that both Messrs. McCain and Obama backed,” write the editors of The New York Sun, the conservative daily paper that ceased publication last fall.
The piece is surprising in two regards: first in that it touts their support for a Cheney candidacy as far back as April 2007, and second that it’s being published in the conservative Sun, which was supposedly shuttered in September 2008.
“Imagine for a moment that [Cheney]‘d had that chance,” Douthat’s column muses. But the Sun did. Cheney “would bring the most to the race” the Sun’s editors wrote over two years ago, listing his foreign policy experience, the strength of Lynne as the first-lady, and the fact that he was a full four years younger than John McCain.
Almost as non-sensical as a Cheney ‘08 campaign is the publication of editorials at a defunct newspaper. A quick look to the site’s main page reveals that little has happened since its last day of publication on September 30, 2008 — but a few new articles have emerged yesterday and today. Another curious change: the copyright on the bottom of the site’s page reads “© 2002-2009 TWO SL LLC” — the previous owner was One SL LLC.
Perhaps, along with Cheney, the Sun is planning to rise again.
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Some conservatives want Cheney just as some people favor boxers vs. briefs. Personally, anybody who favors Cheney for Pres isn’t an active, engaged citizen. For that matter, the choices we’ve been given by the Uber-elite are just retreaded puppet-heads for their agenda. Things really haven’t changed all that much operationally from one administration to another. They jigger with taxes a bit and parade around in their own style, but mostly everything is the same. Most people are slumbering while awake, unaware of the charade being played on them. Our current slate of politicos are all the same. The coatings be they Dem or GOP, black, white, male or female all have the same gooey filling that bears a strong resemblance to excrement. And who doesn’t agree that most of these prigs aren’t full of s#it?
Not only am I amazed that The Sun appears to be publishing again, but I’m amazed they stopped last year. I thought that happened a bazillion years ago…news is slow to reach Fly Over Country.
And a Cheney Presidential Bid would have been scary, scary, scary. Just think of the hunting invitations to the Cabinet members! How do you say no, but realize you could get shot?
Yeah, I think it’s pretty significant that the Sun has just up and started posting to its website again.
Douthat’s commentary is insightful, where the Sun’s prescience is insane for the same reason: you can’t look at this guy without everything he comes with. Cheney was reviled, his poll numbers were atrocious, he was the Mr. Potter of the Bush administration, his health was constantly in question and he wasn’t selected by the GOP because he never, ever would have won.
In the real world, you can’t “imagine” away the factors that made him inviable — something the Sun’s editors seem to forget.
[...] as Kate Klonick noted, The Sun offered an editorial in response to Ross Douthat’s first NY Times column: [...]
The NY Sun editorialist COMPLETELY misunderstood Ross Douthat’s column. Douthat is saying that it would have been a good thing for the GOP to have run arch-conservative Cheney for President, because he would have been TROUNCED by Obama and therefore the lunatic ultra-right-wing of the GOP would have been consigned to oblivion.
If the NY Sun thinks that Cheney could have beaten Obama, it’s no wonder that the newspaper folded. They are completely divorced from reality.
[...] “only tangentially involved with the new New York Sun.” (The stirring at the Sun was first noticed by Kate Klonick in a post at [...]
[...] • Defunct (we thought) newspaper the New York Sun has begun publishing new editorials on its website. [True/Slant] [...]