CHENEY PROVES UNPERSUASIVE…. About a month ago, Dick Cheney told CNN he believes President Obama has made decisions that will “raise the risk to the American people of another attack.”
The comments drew quick rebukes from the president, vice president, and attorney general, and officials including Gen. David Petraeus and former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R) both publicly disagreed with Cheney’s assessment.
As it turns out, Cheney apparently hasn’t convinced the public, either.
Seventy-two percent of those questioned in the [new CNN] poll released Monday disagree with Cheney’s view that some of Obama’s actions have put the country at greater risk, with 26 percent agreeing with the former vice president. […]
CNN Polling Director Keating Holland pointed out the partisan divide evident in the results. “By a 53 percent to 46 percent margin, Republicans agree with Dick Cheney,” he said. “But more than nine in 10 Democrats believe that Obama has not made the country less safe from terrorism. They are joined by more than seven in 10 independents who don’t see an increase in the threat from terrorism since Obama took office.”
It’s a reminder of why congressional Republicans would prefer to see Dick Cheney stay quiet in some undisclosed location: Americans tend to reject what he has to say. He wasn’t credible or persuasive in office, and his stature has hardly improved since.
Chris Cillizza added, “[T]he current leadership vacuum atop the Republican party allows for figures like Cheney and conservative talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh to — at times — speak for the GOP, a detrimental development for a party searching for a way forward rather than a look back.”
What’s more, poll results like these also reinforce the notion that Republican arguments about national security through a partisan frame — the media-backed idea that Democrats are less credible on keeping Americans safe — simply doesn’t work anymore.
