July 27, 2000

By now, almost all the standard things to say about Bush's choice of Cheney have already been said.  Daddy's son sticking with Daddy's board of directors.  The all-oil ticket.  The upside-down ticket, '88s Bush/Quayle in reverse, with a Veep nominee  lending "gravitas" to a candidate otherwise so light he'd float up to the top of the Philadelphia convention center with the rest of the balloons. 

Prominent mouthpieces of both political parties immediately rushed forward to proclaim how delighted they were that Bush had named Cheney.  In any case like that, it's a good bet that the mouthpieces of one party are lying through their teeth.   And in this case it is the Republicans.  If Bush had named McCain, I'd try to put the best face on the situation (admitting that I'm not a prominent mouthpiece), but I wouldn't even pretend to say I was "delighted."  And I really am delighted.  In one brilliant stroke, Bush has locked up Wyoming's three electoral votes, and brought forth a troop of hard-righties from Grover Norquist to Alan Keyes to proclaim their relief that Bush doesn't actually mean all that compassionate nonsense.   Other GOP pundits, trying to make lemonade, have declared it a "governing" choice that somehow shows Bush's confidence and maturity. 

What's really interesting to me is how this choice got made.  The simplest answer -- that Cheney ran Bush's VP selection process, and selected himself -- is probably wrong.   No one would willingly become Veep except to position for a future prez race, and it's hard to imagine Cheney dreaming of accepting the nomination of a grateful GOP in 2004, let alone 2008.  The second simple explanation, that Bush the Elder picked Cheney as George W's designated baby sitter, has more going for it.  Cheney is a Bush loyalist, and indeed a lot like Poppy himself: a Texas oilman and GOP functionary who's been around since God was a boy (or at least since I was in college, which was nearly as long ago).  Cheney is also associated with the Bush Administration's one success, the Gulf War, and thus far more suitable than, say, someone from the Bush economic-policy team.

But the one thing this theory doesn't explain is that eyes-lighting-up business.   Did even George W imagine that anyone except hard-right ideologues -- and Democratic party hacks like me -- would be excited by a Beltway / corporate retread like Dick Cheney?  Was it just a teaser line, to keep the media off balance with fantasies of a Bush/McCain ticket?  Or did George W. actually believe it?

My theory is that he did. 

Everyone knows that the GOP's dream running mate -- even more than McCain -- would have been Colin Powell.  And in Cheney, Bush is in a way getting Powell Lite ... or, perhaps more precisely, Powell Wite.  For the dirty little secret of Powell's outsized public reputation is that it has little to do with his accomplishments and everything to do with him being the Tiger Wood of the Beltway: a black man who makes whites feel good about race in America.  Colin Powell does not wear dreadlocks, or recite gangsta rap, or do any of the things that frighten white people.  Best of all he's a Republican.  By definition, black Republicans are reassuring to whites when it comes to race, whereas even the most moderate black Democrats are a vaguely alarming reminder of civil-rights controversies past.  (Alan Keyes may be plenty alarming -- nothing "vague" about it -- but not on account of race.) 

Donna Brazile committed truth -- and got in the usual trouble as a result -- for saying bluntly what everyone who breathes oxygen knows: that there is a hefty element of tokenism in the GOP's showcasing of its handful of prominent African-Americans.  So, at risk of joining Donna Brazile in the bluntness doghouse, I'll say that the only real difference between Cheney and Powell, politically speaking, is that Cheney is just another white guy.   And the amazing thing about George W (if my theory is correct) is that he doesn't realize this. 

In Bushworld, Powell and Cheney are nearly interchangeable: loyal, distinguished Bushters who were involved in Poppy's one big success, the Gulf War.  To be sure, Bush and everyone around him knew that Powell, not Cheney, has the star power -- but in Bushworld, Cheney could be a star just as well.  If the electorate's eyes would light up for Powell, why not for Cheney? 

I give George W. credit for one thing: so far as I can tell, he has no trace of racism in him.  Indeed, while the Bushes as a clan have many failings, racism doesn't seem to be one of them.  But -- as in so much else with the Bushes -- this seems joined with obliviousness to the harsh universe beyond the safe confines of Bushworld.  Bush the Elder was notoriously clueless, not just about supermarket checkout machines but about the whole state of the American economy during his tenure, and it cost him  the '92 election. 

George W. may be equally clueless about the racial subtext to Colin Powell's popularity among whites.  He may be likewise clueless about the sea of tokenism that is about to descend on American television sets next week (at least, the half-dozen or so that will be tuned to the Republican Convention).  He doubtless genuinely believes that voters' eyes will light up on seeing a parade of black, brown, and female faces to the non-podium in Philadelphia.

Just as they lit up when the voters heard about Dick Cheney. 

-- Rick Robinson

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Last revised 11/07/2006 ... by RM Robinson

Email me: Lyonesse@compuserve.com

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