Published: August 20, 2008 09:50 pm            

MARK BENETT: Thanks, Dick Cheney: Electing a president isn’t what it used to be

TERRE HAUTE — Coffee is coffee, right?

Yes, until you stir something else into it. Coffee with cream isn’t the same as coffee and whiskey. Try the latter before your 10 o’clock meeting at the office, and you’ll realize the difference.

In 2008, electing a president isn’t as cut-and-dried as ordering a cup of java straight-up. Dick Cheney changed all that. The wrangling over vice presidential choices is no longer the political equivalent of a barstool argument over who Peyton Manning’s backup should be: Jim Sorgi or Quinn Gray? VPs don’t merely hold the president’s clipboard anymore. In many ways, Cheney’s the voice from the booth in President Bush’s headset.

So voters must now study the packages atop the parties’ tickets, so to speak.

Of course, there is a rational limit to all of this buzz over the running mates for John McCain and Barack Obama. National news outlets have called the Tribune-Star, wondering what the word around Shirkieville is about native son Evan Bayh’s chances of being Obama’s vice presidential pick. Understand, I think Shirkieville’s a wonderful place. As John Mellencamp would say, I’m a small-town guy myself. Still, as with my hometown of Prairieton, getting insider information on the Democratic national party from downtown Shirkieville is a bit of a stretch.

But from Shirkieville to Gainesville, Fla., to Amityville, N.Y., the vice presidential choices made by McCain and Obama matter.

Imagine how differently George W. Bush’s presidency would have turned out had he selected Tom Ridge, the former Pennsylvania governor, instead of Cheney in 2000.

Ridge, now under consideration as McCain’s VP, was a decorated Vietnam vet who governed his state with low-key conservatism, but also championed an expanded child health care program, as well as environmental reforms.

Ridge topped Bush’s short list eight years ago. But Cheney, who chaired the committee to find Bush’s VP in 2000, wound up taking the job himself.

The nation could be in a far better situation right now if Bush had picked Ridge.

“It’s pretty apparent that Dick Cheney has had more influence on this administration than any vice president has ever enjoyed,” said Steve Tally, a vice presidential historian. “When you combine this influence with Cheney’s views on Iraq, foreign intelligence and how the war should be fought, you see that things would have been quite different with another vice president.

“For example, many people were hoping Bush would select Colin Powell,” Tally continued. “It’s easy to imagine that if Powell had been vice president, and had even half of the influence of Cheney, that the U.S. would have approached the war in Iraq differently, and perhaps not gone to war at all.”

Tally knows his vice presidents. His 1992 book “Bland Ambition: From Adams to Quayle — The Cranks, Criminals, Tax Cheats and Golfers Who Made It to Vice President” is one of the definitive works on American VPs. A Greene County native and an Indiana State University graduate, Tally is a science writer for the Purdue University News Service.

Conventional wisdom, at this moment, insists that McCain and Obama can’t improve their chances of election victory much through running mate choices. Tally agrees.

“Obama’s selection for VP will matter more than McCain’s. Even people who are familiar with him still have some concern about his relative lack of experience,” Tally said of Obama. “If [Obama’s vice presidential pick] has his own Dan Quayle moment, I think it will hurt him. I don’t really think his selection can help him, though. He’s in a position where he can possibly make a mistake, but not really help himself. I think that’s quite a bit of pressure.”

Cheney’s presence in the No. 2 slot had little effect on Bush’s victory in 2000. Gradually, though, as their administration’s two terms unfolded, Americans learned they got more than they bargained for from their votes.

“When you look at Cheney’s statements and assumed influence in areas beyond the war — in areas such as protecting constitutional rights and domestic energy policy — again, it’s easy to imagine an administration that would have been quite different,” Tally said.

Vice presidential value typically involves that “heartbeat from the presidency” scenario. Now, instead, voters must also consider the possibility of the second name on the ticket becoming the “heartbeat of the presidency.”

Veeps are great fodder for chuckles, from Quayle’s strange quotations to John Garner’s memorable description of the job as being more worthless than “a pitcher of warm spit.” In 2008, though, the humor has worn off. The prospect for a repeat of the current vice presidency, like a strong cup of black coffee, is very sobering.

Mark Bennett can be reached at mark.bennett@tribstar.com or (812) 231-4377.

        

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