October 06, 2004

Cheney to Edwards: You Don’t Have a Plan, You Have an Echo

One of my favorite exchanges from the Vice-Presidential debate:

VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY: Well, Gwen, it’s hard to know where to start, there’s so many inaccuracies there.

The fact of the matter is the troops wouldn’t have what they have today if you guys had had your way. When you talk about internationalizing the effort, they don’t have a plan, basically—it’s an echo. You made the comment that the Gulf War coalition in ‘91 was far stronger than this. No, we had 34 countries then, we’ve got 30 today. We’ve got troops beside us.

It’s hard, after John Kerry referred to our allies as a “coalition of the coerced and the bribed” to go out and persuade people to send troops and to participate in this process. You end up with a situation in which—talk about demeaning, in effect, you demean the sacrifice of our allies when you say it’s wrong war, wrong place, wrong time, oh, by the way, send troops. It makes no sense at all. It’s totally inconsistent. There isn’t a plan there.

Our most important ally in the war on terror in Iraq, specifically, is Prime Minister Allawi. He came recently and addressed a joint session of Congress that I presided over, with the Speaker of the House, and John Kerry rushed out immediately after his speech was over with—where he came and he thanked America for our contributions and our sacrifice and pledged to hold his election in January—went out and demeaned him, criticized him, challenged his credibility. That is not the way to win friends and allies. You’re never going to add to the coalition with that kind of attitude.

MODERATOR: Senator Edwards, 30 seconds.

SENATOR EDWARDS: Thank you. The Vice President suggests that we have the same number of countries involved now that we had in the first Gulf War. The first Gulf War cost the American people $5 billion. And regardless of what the Vice President says, we’re at $200 billion and counting. Not only that, 90 percent of the coalition casualties, Mr. Vice President—the coalition casualties—are American casualties. Ninety percent of the cost of this effort are being borne by American taxpayers. It is the direct result of the failures of this administration.

MODERATOR: Mr. Vice President.

VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY: Classic example, he won’t count the sacrifice and the contribution of our Iraqi allies. It’s their country, they’re in the fight, they’re increasingly the ones out there putting their necks on the line to take back their country from the terrorists and the old regime elements that are still left. They’re doing a superb job, and for you to demean their sacrifice, that strikes me as —

SENATOR EDWARDS: Oh, I’m not —

VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY:—beyond the pale. It is, indeed. You suggested that somehow —

SENATOR EDWARDS: No, sir —

VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY:—they shouldn’t count, because you want to be able to say that the Americans are taking 90 percent of the sacrifice. You cannot succeed in this effort if you’re not willing to recognize the enormous contribution the Iraqis are increasingly making to their own future. We’ll win when they take on responsibility for governance, which they’re doing; and when they take on responsibility for their own security, which they increasingly are doing.

It’s amazing that Kerry and Edwards are still pretending they would build a coalition of nations to help us in Iraq, even after France and Germany have flat-out repudiated that notion. Who else do they think they can bring in? We’ve got almost everybody else already. Their rhetoric is hollow.

VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY: Your rhetoric, Senator, would be a lot more credible, if there was a record to back it up. There isn’t, and you cannot use talk tough during the course of a 90 minute debate in a presidential campaign to obscure a 30-year record in the United States Senate and prior to that by John Kerry, who has consistently come down on the wrong side of all the major defense issues that he’s faced as a public official.

This is the line for Bush to take on Friday.

Bar Chart: VP Debate Nuance Indicator

Cheney destroyed Edwards in last night’s debate.

I’d like to present a BIG PICTURE innovation, the Nuance Indicator. This works by comparing the number of times each candidate says the word, “but”.

Vice-Presidential Debate Nuance Indicator

As shown, Senator Edwards used the word “but” 41 times to Vice-President Cheney’s 16, indicating that Senator Edwards was more than two and a half times as nuanced.