The Failure Artist

"When George W. Bush chose Dick Cheney as his running mate in 2000, conservatives let out a sigh of relief-even some paleoconservatives did so. Word was that Pat Buchanan himself thought it was a good selection. It certainly seemed Bush could have done worse-he might have chosen John McCain, his primary rival and the man the neoconservatives at the Weekly Standard really wanted to be president."

"He added experience in government, too: Cheney had been Gerald Ford's chief of staff and George H.W. Bush's secretary of defense. As a congressman in the Reagan years, he had been the ranking Republican on the House select committee investigating the Iran-Contra affair. Cheney had ties to every GOP president dating back to Richard Nixon, when he first got involved in the executive branch as a protege of sorts to a rising Republican administrator named Donald Rumsfeld."

"The first Bush-Cheney combination, in power from 1989 to 1993, gave us the Panama invasion and the Persian Gulf War. George Bush fils said on the campaign trail in 2000 that he wouldn't involve America in "nation-building" abroad. But that didn't mean no new wars. Cheney was exactly the sort of partner a younger Bush who intended to continue his father's foreign policy would want."

Dick Cheney's selection as the 2000 vice-presidential nominee reassured conservatives and balanced the ticket's right flank. Cheney brought long government experience, including roles as Gerald Ford's chief of staff, George H.W. Bush's secretary of defense, and ranking Republican on the Iran-Contra select committee. He had ties to GOP presidents back to Richard Nixon and a professional relationship with Donald Rumsfeld. Cheney's earlier tenure presaged a willingness to use military force: the first Bush administration produced the Panama invasion and the Gulf War. Cheney's presence signaled readiness for activist foreign policy and new military interventions despite campaign promises against nation-building.

Read at The American Conservative