Dick Cheney Rated as Worst Vice President Ever by 1 in 4 Respondents

It would be difficult to name a United States vice president about whom less was known-and who wielded more power-than Vice President Dick Cheney. And what is known about the man and his performance while in office has left Americans with a bad taste in their mouths in large part. As reported by USA Today on December 23, 2008, a poll taken by CNN with 1,013 adult respondents reveals nearly 1 in 4 Americans rate Cheney as the worst vice president ever.

Looking closer at the numbers of the CNN survey, respondents who identify as Republicans continue to consider Cheney a good vice presidents (USA Today). Among those who identify as Independents, 6 in 10 rate the lame duck vice presidents as "poor" to "worst ever," with those numbers rising to 8 in 10 among those who identify as Democrats (USA Today).

I doubt Mr. Cheney is going to get his panties in a bunch over his popularity-or lack of it. He's never been one to try and charm the masses, although it can be argued that what he's done instead over the course of his vice presidency is to proliferate propaganda, about the Iraq war, the "global war on terrorism" and just about any other topic that near and dear to his heart and wallet.

In a surprising statement made December 20, 2008 during an interview on the ABC network, Cheney made it known that the administration was going to invade Iraq, irregardless of Iraq's possessions of weapons of mass destruction. The statement is surprising, not so much because this truth hadn't been surmised by much of the American public for a long time, but because it is blatantly honest and runs against the propaganda which was spun by the Bush-Cheney administration for so long.

This statement, coupled with Cheney's admission in the same interview that he okayed the torture of war criminals, including the much maligned method of water boarding, makes one wonder if there isn't a presidential pardon forthcoming. Given his demeanor during the interview, Cheney did not reveal these things to clear his conscience-simply statements of fact.

Source: USA Today. Mike Carney. 2008, December 23. "Poll: 1 in 4 consider Cheney 'worst' veep in history." http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/12/poll-1-in-4-con.html