Cheney: "The polls are notoriously unreliable" [View All]

[sabra]

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/07/20070731-2.html


Interview of the Vice President by Larry King, CNN
Vice President Ceremonial Office
Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building


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THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, the way you have to operate in these jobs -- and the President, obviously, is the one who bears the greatest burden; he's the one who makes the decisions, but I clearly support him -- you have to do it on the basis of what you think is right and what's best for the country. The polls are notoriously unreliable, in the sense that they change all the time, they bounce around all over the place. That if you looked simply at public opinion, for example, a lot of the key decisions in our history would never have been pursued or followed through on. Washington never would have carried through for seven years of the Revolution. Abraham Lincoln would never have stayed with it in order to win the Civil War. We would have been two separate nations by then.

You can look at major moments in our history and be thankful that we had leaders and Presidents who made decisions, stuck with them and saw them through to the end.

...

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, every administration does, to some extent, Larry. But I think in the end, it will depend upon the results and what ultimately happens. I think history will judge us well, if we're successful in achieving the objectives we've set. I think the President has made some crucial decisions, very important decisions, very difficult decisions. But I think what we've done in Afghanistan, for example, and in Iraq, which represents liberating 50 million people from two of the worst regimes in modern times, is a very significant achievement.

I think what we've done to defend the nation successfully now for nearly six years against a further attack, because of the tough decisions we've made because of things like the Terrorist Surveillance Program and the Patriot Act, and because we've gotten aggressive with our forces overseas and prevented further attacks against the United States. Nobody six years ago would have believed that it would be possible, after 9/11, for us to go this long and not get hit again. But we have, we have succeeded at it.

...

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I don't worry about the polls. You can't worry about the polls. I saw Jerry Ford, when I served with him, when I first met you, Jerry was -- President Ford was down -- it was 70 percent when he started. He ended up in the 30s. Later, 30 years later, obviously, just last year, when he passed away and we had memorial services and so forth for him, he was held in very high regard; across the country his praises were sung for some of the really tough decisions he made that were very unpopular at the time.