Is Sarah Palin the new Dick Cheney?
Dick Cheney: 'no reason' Sarah Palin can't be vice president
Dick Cheney, arguably the most powerful vice president in history, told reporters today that he "loved" Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's speech to the GOP last week, especially the line about how a hockey mom (oops...we called her a soccer mom in an earlier version) is a pit bull with lipstick.
During a stop in Rome on his return from a trip to Georgia and Europe that took him out of the country during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., Cheney called Palin's appearance there "superb." Asked if she could handle the vice presidency in a John McCain administration, Cheney said:
Everybody brings a different set of experiences to the office and also has a different kind of understanding with whoever the president is. Each administration is different. And there's no reason why Sarah Palin can't be a successful vice president in a McCain administration.
Although it wouldn't look like other recent Republican administrations -- Cheney cited his own under George W. Bush, Dan Quayle's under George H.W. Bush and Nelson Rockefeller's under Gerald R. Ford -- the current vice president said a Palin term would be "relatively unique to this president and this time that they're in office."
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was more circumspect. In an interview with CNN over the weekend after her trip to Libya, Rice said Palin "gave a terrific speech." But the secretary declined to play when it came to questions concerning the Alaska governor's experience in foreign affairs. "These are decisions that Sen. McCain has made," she said. "I have great confidence in him."
Rice said it would not be appropriate for her, as secretary of State, to get involved in the election, and that she would be "the last" person to advise Palin as she prepares for her debate against Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Pressed on the experience question, Rice added, "There are different kinds of experience in life that help one to deal with matters of foreign policy."
-- Johanna Neuman
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