Bob Woodward of Watergate fame believes it is “highly likely” that Dick Cheney will be running for president in 2008. His reasoning (at least that given by the Denver Post article) seems pretty worthless, but let’s assume for the moment he’s right. How awesome would that be?

Consider the divisiveness inside the GOP as a war breaks out over whether or not Dick “Freedom means freedom for everyone” Cheney is socially conservative enough to represent them. Or if his ties to Halliburton are too much of a liability. Or if his poll numbers are strong enough to beat Hillary Clinton’s.

A fellow blogger who calls herself The Christian Progressive Liberal says it best, I think:

For starters, you can hang war profiteering around his neck (former CEO of Halliburton); especially if the Iraq war isn’t over, and Dubya starts conflicts with other members of the Axis of Evil (I can see Cheney pissing off North Korea as I write this).

You can tag Cheney with all the sliming of honest, ethical individuals who take a stand for what is right and tell the truth, because he’s doing it right now. You honestly think Bush is capable of such devious planning and implementation of slime and slander? Please, if you read “Bush on The Couch” by Dr. Justin Frank, you will agree with his assessment that Bush is totally incapable of intelligent thought on a long term basis. That also explains his “gut feeling” impulses versus relying on facts, logic and actually having to perform the labor of reading and comprehension.

Cheney is not a likable person. Most of us would like to think that the President is someone with a personality that actually is likeable. Even Tricky Dick Nixon was likeable, in small doses. That’s why GeeDubya was able to get public office - he knows how to schmooze and make people let down their guard to actually LIKE HIM. Can you see Dick Cheney engaging in anything warm and fuzzy, personal, intimate?

That last point is important. Everything I’ve read about George W. Bush indicates that when you’re in his presence, he’s quite likeable. So as detestable as he and his cronies may be, you can at least understand why some people are drawn to him. After all, Bill Clinton’s charisma was legendary as well. You never hear that about Dick Cheney. The guy comes off cold as ice.

So right now all I can hope is that Bob Woodward’s got another Deep Throat confirming Dick Cheney’s 2008 bid for the presidency. Once it’s confirmed, I’ll be happy to help him win the Republican nomination. In the meantime, I’ll work on Christopher Walken’s candidacy.