Dick Cheney for President? It’s Palin, Romney…And Cheney Leading GOP Pack

polls

by Frances Martel | 6:06 pm, February 3rd, 2010

» 17 comments

John McCain may have done his best to stow old Bush administration personalities away for his presidential campaign, but Fox News is reporting that a new poll shows former vice president Dick Cheney is actually a fairly popular choice among Republican voters to run for president in 2012.

In a poll that was probably taken about a year too soon, 10% of a pool of 2,003 Republicans supported a Cheney presidential run. The organization that conducted the survey, Research 2000, is simultaneously described as being “non-partisan” and having an affiliation with Daily Kos, though they surveyed only Republicans and there is no indication that, even if they did harbor a bias, the case of Cheney making a splash in the primary pool would do little to benefit their cause. The presidential nominee question was also one in a variety of opinion questions such as “should Obama be impeached?” and “do you think ACORN stole the 2008 election?” that received surprising responses (more people than one would imagine – 39% and 21%, respectively – said yes to those questions).

The poll results are good news for Sarah Palin, who led in the polls with 16% support, and Mitt Romney, who received 11% support. These results, however, are fairly predictable: Palin is the new face of Fox News and the tea party generation; Mitt Romney is… well, Mitt Romney just is, and he ran for president once so he may be the only name subjects polled could remember, especially compared to some of the other options.

The news here is the emergence of Cheney as a viable third candidate for the Republican nomination to the presidency. Cheney beat out five of the other options, many of which have been more actively suggesting a possible run for office: former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, 2008 presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty and a surprising appearance by South Dakota senator John Thune. Cheney has suffered a chronic case of unpopularity since his early days as vice president, but his favorability ratings remarkably started to surge as soon as he left the White House. Last May CNN reported that between his departure from the White House in January 2009 and May of that same year, his popularity rose 8% among all Americans. Although Matt Yglesias was quick to point out that this still made him only slightly less popular than the communist nation of Cuba, that bump almost a year ago has apparently snowballed into a potential presidential run (Fox News is reporting that there are groups in favor of “drafting” Cheney to the presidency, but this might be stretching the truth a tad). For now, Cheney has adamantly turned the idea down, and the chances of him gaining significant ground on someone like Palin are slim, but if there’s one thing 2010 has taught us, it’s not to trust an old man claiming to be happy to retire from a great job.

See the full poll results here.

ACORN, CNN, Daily Kos, Dick Cheney, fox news, John Thune, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, newt gingrich, Poll, Republicans, Research 2000, Sarah Palin, Tim Pawlenty

timzank

Common sense would dictate Conservatives or Progressives need not worry about Cheney running for President for the simple reason his health simply wouldn’t allow for it, so everyone can save themselves the rantings and ravings, it ain’t gonna happen.

Of course, I did use common sense and progressives in the same sentence, and Lord knows those two are never compatible.
roxsteady

Kinda like the term “fiscally responsible Republican” (see current economy) or Tough on Terro Republicans (see 3000 dead at WTC). It’s what we’d call an oxymoron. Besides, his first trip overseas would be his last. He’d be arrested for war crimes. (See prosecution fo Japanese for waterboarding).
roxsteady

That’s terror!
Cecelia

sweeet!
liberalontogeny

I Think either Project 2000 or the 2003 Republicans polled are just “messin” with Democratic party supporters. Just trying to get a rise out of them.

No way Cheney is running for President or accept VP running mate position ever again.
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

@liberalontogeny: She may have joking, but maybe the balloon has been floated.
TfT

How bout Liz Cheney, now that would be great.
TinaFromTampa

How bout Mary Cheney, now that would be great.
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

@TinaFromTampa: How about Lynne? She’s probably been in the man-sized safe.
TinaFromTampa

@Magister: Too busy writing romance novels and keeping Dick happy.
liberalontogeny

@Magister

I’m assumming you’re fully aware that Dick Cheney stated no chance in Hell he would ever run for President responding to his daughters “balloon”
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

@liberalontogeny: Well, he really couldn’t run due to the health issues timzank mentioned and because if he were to throw his hat in the ring, it’d rekindle the concept of investigation and after the media had done their harm, if he were elected, Congress would just get bogged down with hearings about his prior acts.

Too bad, though. As a Democrat, he’d certainly be the candidate that I’d like Obama to face.
puck30

As Ralph Kramdon would yell…. WAIT A MINUTE HERE!

I click on the link and I get Daily Kos?. This would be like if World Net Daily went out and had somebody polled Democrats.

But I’ll roll with it. Let’s look at the undecided. 42%!

I would never pick Cheney for this one reason, he picked his shots on tv interviews. He would never do O’Reilly’s show. And Russert right before he passed did an interview with Cheney and Tim roughed him up. Cheney was spining pretty good at the end.

Romney is way too middle of the road and Palin is still evolving. If anything this poll shows no one has broken apart from the crowd. But the good news is at least Ricky Sanitarium didn’t make the list.
rmbltmbl

ha ha, Daily Kos, don’t quit your day job.
J Baustian

I like both Dick and Lynn Cheney, a lot, but I don’t see either of them seeking elective office or any appointive offices. They’ve done it all, there are no more important goals to work toward.

Liz Cheney? Very impressive. She needs to win an elective office, at least a House seat. Then we’ll see how far she can go.
The Real Royal King

If anything this poll shows no one has broken apart from the crowd. But the good news is at least Ricky Sanitarium didn’t make the list.

—

We seldom agree Puck Thirty, but I think your analysis here is on-target. The GOP talent pool certainly has to be deeper than this. Were it not, then I would concur with those who say the party is in significant trouble. Cheney hits the sour, pessimistic, mean note many party members seem to so enjoy, Palin brings in a segment of American conservatism which the Republicans have never been able to lasso, and Romney — I just don’t know. On a personal level, he has some quality that creeps me out, the Eddie Haskel phenomenon. A man for all seasons, but not for any particular season …. There seems to be a genuine revulsion for him among Republicans and conservatives, however. I don’t think it’s policy differences, since he agrees with every policy and every person. While I am sure some small portion of this is faith-based, it can’t be enough to drive away Republicans and conservatives in the numbers he does. Most interesting.

The Dick Cheney numbers are interesting, but I think that may go more to heart than mind. I’m sure most Republicans and conservatives realize that it’s simply too much baggage. Of course, Senator soon-not-to-be Governor Hutchinson seems not to understand that. Maybe, I’m wrong.
J Baustian

RRK: this poll is based mostly on name recognition, plus it’s a vote of endorsement for the themes Cheney has been expressing in recent speeches and appearances. It should not be interpreted as a measure of which person Republicans will choose in 2012.

I took note of the large numbers of undecides in most poll questions. This suggests to me that the DailyKos did a poor job of selecting or wording the questions. In the sase of the presidential preference question, the only valid conclusion to be reached is that there are no front-runners at this time. (My top choice, Senator Gregg of New Hampshire, was not listed in the poll question.)