Like Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, Dick Cheney has often claimed that he will never be a candidate for President. But a Cheney campaign would in many ways be similar to R.F.K.'s. Like RFK, Cheney would be an insider (RFK served in the Johnson administration and was a Senator) running as an outsider. Robert F. Kennedy realized that the party had lost touch with its base and needed a rejuvenation, and Dick Cheney realizes this about the Republicans as well. Cheney would emphasize that some strategic miscues which occurred on the Republicans' watch were a result of his judgment not being followed, as RFK did about Vietnam. Also like RFK, Cheney is possessed of a positively youthful vigor.
And just as Kennedy's campaign energized a new generation of democrat activists, a Cheney campaign could excite young Republicans. After all, this is the man who, as Defense Secretary, defeated the Soviet Union and brought down the Berlin Wall. With Cheney as President, the terrorists would probably be defeated in a matter of months.
Tragically, as with RFK there is a significant possibility that the nation will be deprived of Cheney's leadership, although in this case, not because of a terrorist killing, but merely because Cheney does not realize the tremendous support his candidacy would receive from grassroots everyday Americans.
