If Cheney is your best hope, then you have no chance...

Things must be more desperate in the Republican leadership contest than I had at first imagined if The New York Sun are anything to go by. They have produced an extraordinary editorial arguing that one of the best candidates that the Republicans have for 2008 is actually Dick Cheney.

Mr. Cheney has virtues as a candidate in his own right. He has foreign policy experience by virtue of having served as defense secretary, and he has economic policy experience, having served as a leading tax-cutter while a member of the House of Representatives. His wife, Lynne, would be an asset to the ticket in her own right, a point made by Kathryn Jean Lopez in a post on the topic at National Review Online back in February. By our rights, Lynne Cheney would make one of the greatest First Ladies in history. Mr. Cheney, in any event, is more than four years younger than Mr. McCain, and, if elected, would be 67 years old at his inauguration, younger than Reagan was when he took office. His health, while a topic of frequent speculation, hasn't interfered with his service as vice president.

This is a staggering suggestion which surely belies some form of panic amongst right wingers that they would even countenance such a thing. Leaving aside the fact that Cheney has said that he will not stand, there is the small matter of his ratings in the polls.

His personal rating currently stands at 18%. This makes him less popular than Michael Jackson and OJ Simpson.

Michael Jackson, who was alleged of sexually harassing an underage boy, and American football player O.J. Simpson, who caused a huge clamor for being suspected of murdering his wife in 1994, each maintained 25 percent and 29 percent favorable impression rates, respectively.

And then there is the small matter that he is the first sitting Vice President since Arron Burr to shoot a man whilst in office. As Jon Stewart noted at the time, Burr at least shot Alexander Hamilton in a duel, Cheney shot his hunting partner because he mistook him for a bird.

And there are people seriously arguing that Cheney is the man the Republicans need in 2008? Indeed, hoping that President Bush might convince him to stand?

The vice president's stature would put him instantly into the first rank of contenders on the Republican side. On Monday, speaking in Alabama, the vice president received such a warm greeting that he began his remarks by saying, "A reception like that is almost enough to make you want to run for office again." It is hard to imagine the vice president did not comprehend how tantalizing such a remark would be.

Oh, it's tantalising all right. Speaking as someone who supports the Democrats I can honestly say it's almost a wet dream.

Stand Cheney, I beg you... stand.

Let's put Obama or Clinton to the test against your track record and your colossal 18% poll standing.

It would be like shooting fish in a barrel. Still slightly more difficult than the shooting trips Cheney embarks on, but you get the idea...

Click title for entire deranged editorial.

Tags: Dick Cheney, 2008 election, Republican candidates