Concern elections 2008 will be postponed: Frmr US Ambassador

[helderheid]

By Dan Simpson
THE DECISION of President Bush to keep Dick Cheney on as his vice presidential running mate in 2004 may have been the worst thing he has done to America.

I say this not on the basis of whatever policy impact Mr. Cheney may have had on the Bush Administration - the Iraq war, torture, obsessive secrecy, plumping up the executive branch, or whatever. The problem is the phenomenon of having in the vice presidency a person who will not be running for president in the next election. (Mr. Cheney cannot and never could have run on the basis of his heart illness.)

If, for example, Mr. Cheney were going to be running for president in 2008, during Mr. Bush's second term, and particularly toward the end of it, he would be working within the administration to make its positions on issues more palatable to the American people and, therefore, more likely to improve his prospects with the electorate in upcoming elections.

For example, it is now perfectly obvious that the American people have had enough of the casualties, the financial cost, and the bludgeoning the Iraq war is giving America's image in the world. If Mr. Cheney were running in 2008, he would be saying to Mr. Bush and others within the administration: "Look, you bunch of bozos, you are going to have to figure out how to get us out of this mess or I and the Republican Party with me are going to be toast in next year's elections."

Instead, Mr. Bush and the rest of his and Mr. Cheney's loyalists are continuing to hardline it with the same lies and fear-mongering they used to get us into the war in the first place. More practical Republican candidates whose seats will be at risk in 2008 are either jumping ship or drinking.

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http://www.deepjournal.com/p/7/a/en/872.html

[DFW]

1. Cheney will not run for president in 2008

He will do one of 4 things:

1.) Take his ill-gotten wealth and retire to either TX or WY,
and continue to run things from the background, as he has for
the last seven years..........or

2.) Take his ill-gotten wealth and retire with Halliburton to Dubai
and continue to run things from the background, as he has for
the last seven years (but be beyond the reach of the American
justice system, what is left of it).......or

3.) Take his ill-gotten wealth and retire with Halliburton to Dubai
and tell America to go fuck itself, because he got away clean......or

4.) He'll just grab the presidency, declare a national emergency, postpone
the election permanently and turn Congress into a powerless discussion
group, much like it has been of late, but now with all vestiges of its
power as an "equal" branch of government premanently removed, much as the
Duma was under the Soviets. In other words, pretty much as he has been
doing for the last seven years.

Notice that under three of the four, he still runs things, and under all
of the four, he gets away clean with his (our) loot.

I'm sure I have forgotten a few scenarios--fire away, gang.