According to a recent CNN poll, the number of Americans with a favorable opinion of Dick Cheney has risen eight percent since he left office; his ratings are still lower than NBC’s, but they have at least improved significantly. The obvious explanation for this is his media tour; now that he, freed from the Bush administration’s shackles, has begun publicly defending himself and the administration and pleading the case for its policies and actions (as in the speech he gave this week at the American Enterprise Institute), people are listening. Now that someone is actually presenting the defense for the Bush administration—something President Bush never did, and doesn’t seem to have wanted anyone else to do—it’s having an effect. In particular, I suspect he’s giving people reason to see the distinction between himself (and President Bush) and Barack Obama in a different light.
Of course, the media don’t want to admit this. CNN polling director Keating Holland said (and you can almost hear the sniff),
Is Cheney’s uptick due to his visibility as one of the most outspoken critics of the Obama administration? Almost certainly not. Former President George W. Bush’s favorable rating rose 6 points in that same time period, and Bush has not given a single public speech since he left office.
As a response, this is, quite frankly, pathetic. If Vice President Cheney were defending himself to the exclusion of President Bush, this would be logical; as it is, it doesn’t pass the smell test. A far likelier explanation is that the vice president’s media tour is the cause of the rise in both their favorable ratings, because he’s addressing a major cause for the negative view of both of them.