Everybody knows that if the incumbent President doesn't run again that his Vice-President is supposed to carry on the agenda. Al Gore did. So did George H. W. Bush, Walter Mondale, Gerald Ford, Hubert Humphrey, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon.
In fact, you have to go all the way back to 1920 before you find a Vice - President who willingly didn't run for President when his boss's term was up. And wouldn't you know it, VP Thomas Marshall was a wimp Democrat.
As to Republican Vice-Presidents, only four did not become presidential candidates to replace their President. In 1928 the GOP refused to nominate the arrogant Charles Gates Dawes, a banker who was not well received in hard economic times. Instead, the Republicans went with a real winner, Herbert Hoover, whose Vice-President, Charles Curtis, had enough guts to run against the great communist Roosevelt in 1932.
Back in 1908 Teddy Roosevelt supported William Howard Taft and Vice-President Charles Fairbanks realized the futility of running and went back to the pursuit of the legal tender. While his supporters pushed him at the 1892 GOP conventions, poor Levi Morton couldn't get much backing to carry on Benjamin Harrison's agenda. And 1880 Republicans wouldn't even jokingly consider William Wheeler after Rutherford Hayes.
As to the Democrats and their predecessors who did not run for President, other than Marshall in 1920 there were but three: George Dallas who chose not to seek the presidency in 1849; Richard Johnson was unable to get the Democratic nomination in 1840; and Daniel Tompkins was a drunk who died some three months after leaving office in 1825. Tompkins was a Democratic-Republican.
Is that what you are, Dick, a Democratic-Republican? Are you going soft by not running for president? I mean, you are going to be only the first Republican who chose not to run and only the third overall. Are you crossing the aisle and joining ranks with the Democrats? Are you becoming a girly boy?
Look, Dick, the vice-presidency is a stepping stone, not "worth a pitcher of warm piss" according to Democratic Vice President John Nance Garner.
Are your policies not worth warm piss, Dick? Are you willing to turn over waterboarding to John McCain?
Conservatives are not happy with McCain. Wrong on torture. Wrong on buying elections. Wrong on immigration.
As neo-conservative pundit Fred Barnes put it, you are, big Dick: "The obvious man for Bush to tap as his successor in 2008." Barnes wrote that
"The war on terror, national security, and the struggle for democracy will probably dominate American politics for a decade or more. Bush's legacy, or at least part of it, will be to have returned these issues to a position of paramount concern for future presidents. And who is best qualified to pursue that agenda as knowledgeably and aggressively as Bush? The answer is the person who helped Bush formulate it, namely Cheney."
Regarding the usual arguments about Cheney not running, Barnes said that
"He's not too old. President Reagan was 69 when he took office. Despite past heart trouble, Cheney hasn't had a serious health problem for years. Besides, his health has nothing to do with his refusal to consider running in 2008."
Then why won't Dick run for president, even when conservatives are afraid of McCain? "I made it clear when I took the job that I had no aspirations to run for president myself." Why? Because if he was to run then he would have had to worry "about what the precinct committeeman in Ottumwa, Iowa, is going to think about me in January of '08." Since Cheney doesn't have to worry about even what his party loyalists are going to think of Bush's and his agenda, Dick feels free to "offer my advice based on what's best from the standpoint of the president and his program and what we're trying to achieve now."
Ah, yes, Dick Cheney, so-called conservative who admits that he serves his country at his convenience, for his agenda, and could give a damn about what some chump in Iowa thinks about what he is doing.
Run, Dick, run
