Cheney: "I Don't Have Any Idea" Why I'm Unpopular

Dick Cheney tells a Wyoming paper, via Think Progress, that he can't understand why people don't like him:

How do you explain your low approval rating?

"I don't have any idea. I don't follow the polls.

"My experience has been over the years that if you govern based upon poll numbers, upon trying to improve your overall poll ratings, people I've encountered who do that are people who won't make tough decisions. And the job the president has and those who advise him is to make those basic fundamental decisions for the nation that nobody else is authorized or able to make.

"First and foremost among those is to defend the nation. If you're going to follow the polls, you are going to change your policy every week when the poll comes out. Secondly, I think you're adversely affected by the fact that you can get just about any result you want out of a poll.

"My own experience has been, in the administrations I've served in, for example Gerald Ford, a man who made a very, very tough decision when he decided to pardon Nixon, something that was extremely unpopular, universally condemned, but 30 years later he was praised as having done the right thing. So I think you need to have that kind of approach to it rather than watch the polls on any given day."

Read the whole thing.

Comments

[speaksthetruth]

As with everything that Cheney and this administration does, you have to translate their words. "I have no idea" really means "I don't care." They do whatever they want, whether legal or not. They function through lies, arrogance and recklessness. And indifference. Indifference both to the Constitution and the American people. They function as an organized crime syndicate. They have no conscience, no sense of morality, no sense of how their actions affect other people. Above all, they function with an utter lack of accountability to the American people, to the people of the world, and to God.

[VivaZapata]

RoseBlue's comment is worth repeating:
"He really doesn't get it, does he? The issue has nothing to do following opinion polls. It has everything to do with being self-aware, being cognizant of the world we live in, and understanding and reflecting on the likely consequences of one's actions. Cheney has none of these abilities and we will be living the resulting wreckage of that fact for years to come.
And that old history will absolve us line grows more pathetic with each utterance.­"

[Tahlavi52]

"I have no idea"?? he is truly delusional.

[VivaZapata]

and dangerously so

[ZellaBee]

I was popular in the bunker and my hunting dogs like me. I don't get it.

[VivaZapata]

even joe, or was it john?, the buskshot -in-the-face-lawyer still likes him; why not you?

[NotWaldo]

"I am determined to prove a villain / And hate the idle pleasures of these days."

[spinns17]

will gitmo make him see his wrongs?

[VivaZapata]

you mean to waterboard him?

[SparkyDash]

Cheney = total arse

[jdhatl]

Cheney is the supreme war criminal of the lot. He needs to be held accountable for murder.

[NotWaldo]

"I have no idea hy I'm so unpopular.­"

Personaly, I think it's that "Go F**k Yourself" Look !

[Indy 44]

You're unpopular because Americans want their vice presidents to be ineffectual pushovers.

[SparkyDash]

No, because Americans don't want a Veep who is an ev il, l ying s ack of s hit.

[JustMyWords]

There are none so blind as those that will not see.

[pcplz]

Of course he didn' know he was unpopular. He only allowed Fox News on any of tv sets wherever he was. He though he was loved like Mickey Mouse!!

[pamela18335]

Can we waterboard him for a bit, then ask him the question again?

[SmolderingRuin]

Ted Bundy didn't understand why he was unpopular either.

[ZellaBee]

Sociopaths and narcissists never do have any idea why they are unpopular.

[PeaceOnEarth62]

Absolutely. You've hit the nail on the head.

Happy New Year ZellaBee

[ZellaBee]

Thanks. Same to you! Peace! I like your user name. Global Peace Meditation on 12/31/2008! at noon Greenwich time! 4AM PST, 7AM EST.