Les Jones

News > RNC: Lynne and Dick Cheney

The Democrats gave Teresa Heinz Kerry a prominent speaking role to let America hear her ideas, which amounted to a lot of koo koo honey from the queen bee. The Republicans gave Lynne Cheney a small speaking role for a more strategic reason.

A friend of mine once found something good to say about an unpopular person. The guy can't be all that bad, my friend reasone, if his dog likes him that much. In the same way, Dick Cheney gets some redemption based on the fact that his wife loves him and stuck by him all of those years. Cheney may be as smart and effective as John Perry Barlow says, but no one's going to mistake the Vice President for a people person.

As such, his speech wasn't at all engaging. He laid some ground work in deflating Kerry, and got in some good lines. The best of the night was "Senator Kerry says he sees two Americas. It makes the whole thing mutual - America sees two John Kerrys."

I also liked his reminder about one of the great successes of the war in Iraq beyond Iraq's borders. "President Bush does not deal in empty threats and half measures, and his determination has sent a clear message. Just five days after Saddam was captured, the government of Libya agreed to abandon its nuclear weapons program and turn the materials over to the United States. Tonight, uranium, centrifuges, and plans for nuclear weapons that were once hidden in Libya are locked up and stored away in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, never again to be a danger to Americans."

And that's about it. It was a lackluster speech by just about any standard. The GOP's got yer transcript right here.