No wonder the Carter adminstration was so fucked up! Oh wait, that was just Jimmy.

Nobody would care....except most of America happens to agree with Mondale here.

On a total aside, I keep hearing that the Vice Presidency has more power and prestige now than ever before in American history. I think it is more than fair to say the American people have little use for Cheney, Mondale, Agnew and Quayle in recent times. I suspect that Gore and I suppose Nelson Rocky are held in better grace and Ford and Bush patria even more.

Most Americans agree with Mondale because most Americans are sheep who'll believe anything that's repeated often enough.

The reason Cheney gets such bad press is they can't paint Bush as a puppet without having a puppeteer. After all, it's pretty embarrassing to get repeatedly outmanouvered by someone you've presented as a moron. I mean, what would that make the Democrats?

Rove used to be a good fall guy, but since the Plame thing Rove has kept a pretty low profile, so they need Cheney to be the all-powerful brains in the Bush administration.

And he doesn't cut a very sympathetic figure. He's overweight and doesn't have good hair. He told Joe Biden to "f*ck off". He once ran a big, scary company that the press is sure is the root of all evil.

So he's an easy target. But that doesn't make Mondale's accusation true. After all, Mondale's not exactly in the loop, and he's not exactly impartial. As far as I can tell, Mondale and Jimmuh are made for each other. I'm surprised the country made it to 1980.

I'm wondering why anyone should pay any attention to your analysis, then, Eric. Are you in the loop? Are you unbiased?

Wait, why do we just accept the premise that most Americans agree with Mondale? How do you know that, Von Bek? I would guess that most Americans haven't given 5 seconds of thought as to whether the VP has too much power.

Michael,

I think the guy who makes the accusation, in this case Mondale, is the one who needs to back it up.

Most Americans are sheep, Eric ? I am sorry you hold your fellow countrymen in such contempt. As a patriot who loves this republic and its people, I hope you get on the road to Damascus and see the light.

I should have been more clear Karol. Poll after poll shows the American people do not like Dick Cheney. For a fairly good archive of that see:

http://www.pollingreport.com/C.htm

I think most Americans think everyone in the federal government in Washington have too much power. Including Cheney. It's part of our political heritage. You know, small government, less spending. Foreign concepts to today's "conservatives."

Mondale channelling Carter, now that's political insight. Two losers whose careers peaked three decades ago. Maybe three decades from now we can ask Gore and Kerry what they think of America's conflict with China.

Hold on, Karol: there has been lengthy debate over the past six years whether or not Cheney as VP has too much power. Endless discussion.

Endless discussion among politics-obsessed people. Not among "most" Americans. And, Von Bek, "not liking" is very different from thinking, as Mondale does, that he has too much power.

Von Bek,

Uh, why would I go to Damascus? It's hot there.

You think most Americans think the people in Washington have too much power? Really? I think most Americans don't have any idea how the republic is supposed to work. Look how many people didn't understand why Kerry isn't president even though he won the popular vote. Also, the lesson they took away from the civil rights era is the federal government is the solution to everything.

I stand by my sheep comment. Do you remember the sandstorm that stopped the advance three or four days into the Iraq war? The press started to label the war a "quagmire", and I'll be damned if I didn't hear that same word for the next couple of days from everyone around me. Sheep. If the press hammers away at someone or something long enough, he/she/it becomes unpopular.

Take Dan Quayle for instance. Before 1998 he was considered a pretty bright guy, and he is. What do people think of him now?

Take George Bush. Better grades in college than Kerry, and a better score on the military IQ test. But who does the average voter think is more intelligent?

Sheep.

Point well taken Karol but I think a lot of the people's dislike of Cheney comes from the mistaken image that he is the puppet master pulling W.'s strings. Sad but true.

Uhm, the Damascus comment refers to one of the great events of the Western tradition.....

I don't buy we like sheep (all ya'll "Messiah" fans should like that one). Remember at one point W. was one of the most beloved American presidents of all time. Clinton's popularity ebbed and flowed and so did Reagan's. And few people knew how Quayle was before '88. And I think most of us would not think either Kerry or Bush are that intelligent. And why do only grades matter ? I would be more impressed with say a B in classes on Mann, the New South or Managerial Economics as opposed to an A in Principles of Hockey.

I agree with you that the foundations of the republic are lost, generally through education. We have the leftists on one side and "big government conservative" servants of empire on the other.

And maybe the average Joe does not know as much about the republic as he should. But he does know what is right and what is wrong and that people down the street know a hell of a lot more about their neck of the woods than people in DC, Turtle Bay or halfway around the world. This often leads to the nanny state but it also has a lot of "leave us the f--- alone" which helps redeem us a bit.

Hmmmm. I'd never heard "road to Damascus" before.

Oh, I grant you it takes some time for the media to work its magic, and events can counter them for a time. Bush got a big boost from the "rally around the flag" mentality. But they've worked very hard to establish a narrative over the last six years, and by now it's unshakable. Bush (figter pilot, Harvard MBA) is a moron, Cheney is an evil genius pulling the strings.

It's a reference regarding the conversion of Saul of Tarsus as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. Saul, who had been one of the chief foes of the Christian faith, encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus and of course became one of the pivotal figures in spreading the new faith across the Roman world.

I don't think it's just the left that embraces that image of Bush. The same thing seems to come from the war's biggest cheerleader:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0107/2390.html