Dick Cheney in 2012? It Could Be

Former VP Dick Cheney expressed no interest in running for the Presidency in 2008, and speculation was that a great deal of it was because of his past health issues. He has a long history of cardiovascular disease. In 2012, he would be 70.

Despite this, on Monday, WSJ columnist James Taranto wrote an op-ed that if the 2012 election were to focus on national security, "it's hard to think of a better candidate--assuming, of course, that he could be persuaded to run--than Richard B. Cheney."

It's clear that the Bush Administration did some things that would be called inhumane, and against the Geneva Conventions, including torture. It's also relatively clear that Dick Cheney had a bigger part in that than one would have expected, as he turned the post of VP into something with some punch.

Some have called him "Darth Vader," in fact.

HuffPo did some polling of pundits, and conservatives aren't against it.

John McLaughlin said he sees an opening for a Cheney candidacy if there's a national security error from the Obama administration. Great, the GOP hoping for a terror attack. As I've said before, there's no way to absolutely prevent an attack in the future. It just can't be done; the country is too big and the borders too wide.

"Although right now a lot of people are focused on the economy, if there ever was some sort of foreign policy crisis people will look to Dick Cheney and say he had it right."

Craig Shirley, a longtime Republican strategist said:

"In 2009, there are few absurdities left in American politics. Anything is possible and the mere fact that Cheney's name is being floated accomplishes several things including striking fear in the heart of President Obama, especially in light of the crumbing American position in Afghanistan, which could become Obama's Vietnam.

"It also gives aid and comfort to a still battered Republican Party as he is the only GOP leader besides [Newt] Gingrich uncowed by the dominate liberal elites manning the batteries in the nation's capital. They are about the only two politicians on the right who are willing to make a fight of it."

Stephen Wayne, a political science professor at Georgetown University had a more pointed view of the issue:

"The Republican Party today consists of people who are conservative, religious, white and predominantly male. And, you know, if those are the only people who participate and you don't have a lot of other very conservative candidates it is conceivable Cheney could win the Republican nomination. But I don't think it is likely."