Applause for Cheney cranks up slower than before
Tom Baxter
Editor, Southern Political Report
March 11, 2008 —
As Vice-President Dick Cheney put it Monday, the Bush Administration has been so strong in the Peach State, it even had a Georgia Democrat, Zell Miller, give the keynote speech at the Republican National Convention. Bush and Cheney won this state solidly in 2000 and 2004, and raised a ton of money here in between. Cheney was the keynoter Monday afternoon at the Georgia Republican Party’s annual President’s Day dinner, which a party spokesman said would raise close to $1 million. But even among friends of this administration, you get a sense of fatigue these days. The applause was like a good car on a very cold day. It came reliably on every line that was supposed to draw applause, but it started slowly and stretched to get into full gear. “That’s all right. Don’t hold back,” the vice president joked when a scattering of the Republicans, who paid $750 and up for the occasion, applauded a line about the progress of the state party. Cheney promised the administration would take “wise and careful steps to revitalize the economy,” and to press on with the war against terrorism. But most of his speech was dedicated either to preserving the administration’s accomplishments -- in the form of the Bush tax cuts and the foreign intelligence surveillance law, both of which are in peril in the Democratic Congress – or attempt to set the stage for history to judge the administration more favorably than recent polls. “The nation and the world have seen the character and resolve of our president. Only a few presidents in history have been called on to make so many urgent and serious decisions. He has faced them all with the kind of realism, fairmindedness and decency that Americans expect of their president,” Cheney said. He asserted that “the absence of another 9/11 is not an accident, it’s an achievement” brought about in part by the “wise decisions” of the president. Cheney asserted again that the Iraq surge is working, and pledged not to begin a draw-down of troops until it was advisable. “On behalf of the president, I can assure you the decision will be made based on what’s right for our security and what’s best for our troops, without regard to polls, elite opinions or flipflops by politicians,” Cheney said. Which was about as close as the vice president got to a campaign line. While he promised that he and Bush would be available to campain for Republicans this year, although, “with an economy to strengthen and a war to fight,” their time was limited. No one in the crowd seemed visibly disappointed.
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