Cheney also had this to say: Cheney: Obama will be a one-term president
Jan 17, 2011
03:53 PM
By LM Otero, AP
Former vice president Dick Cheney, back in the public eye after a major heart operation, predicts that President Obama will be a one-term president because of health care and other big government programs.
In an interview to air Tuesday on NBC's Today show, Cheney cited Obama's "overall approach to expanding the size of government, expanding the deficit, and giving more and more authority and power to the government over the private sector."
As for health care, Cheney said Obama has "enacted a program that a great many people are very worried about. And that there's a lot of support out there for the effort to repeal that health care package."
According to excerpts released by NBC, the former vice president also talks about his newly implanted heart pump, Obama's national security record, the Arizona shooting, and his offer to step aside as George W. Bush's running mate prior to the 2004 election.
Cheney also told NBC he has not decided whether he will seek a heart transplant.
Cheney, a harsh critic of Obama's national security policies early in the administration, did compliment the president for appearing to change some of his counter-terrorism views, such as the pledge to close the terrorist prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba:
I think he's learned that he's not going to be able to close Guantanamo. That if you didn't have it you'd have to create one like that. You've got to have some place to put terrorists who are combatants who are bound and determined to try to kill Americans.
I think in terms of a lot of the terrorism policies -- the early talk, for example, about prosecuting people in the CIA who've been carrying out our policies -- all of that's fallen by the wayside. I think he's learned that what we did was far more appropriate than he ever gave us credit for while he was a candidate. So I think he's learned from experience. And part of that experience was the Democrats having a terrible showing last election.
Cheney said Obama appears to have learned because he has "been through the fires of becoming president, and having to make decisions and live with the consequences."
"As I say, I think he's found it necessary to be more sympathetic to the kinds of things we did," Cheney said. "They've gotten active, for example, with the drone program, using Predator and the Reaper to launch strikes against identified terrorist targets in the various places in the world."
Cheney also commented on:
His heart pump: "Well, there's a system called the LVAD, Left Ventricular Assist Device. And it in effect takes blood from the ventricle chamber of your heart and moves it into your aorta. And it significantly increases the amount of blood flow you've got going, which is vital when you get to end stage heart failure."
The potential for a heart transplant: "What's happened over time is the technology's gotten better and better and we've gotten more and more experience with people living with this technology. So I'll have to make a decision at some point whether or not I want to go for a transplant. But we haven't addressed that yet."
The Arizona shooting and the alleged impact of heated political rhetoric: "I think we need to be a little careful about assuming that somehow the rest of society or the political class bears the responsibility for what happened here when it was the act of a deranged, crazed individual that committed a crime."
His offer to Bush in 2004: "Well, I actually went in about three different times because I didn't think he took me seriously the first time. That it was all in that period right before the '04 campaign. And the reason I did it was I thought he needed to have the ability to do whatever was necessary-- to make sure he won."
Cheney then reference to the failed re-election bid of Bush's father:
I always remembered what happened in '92 when his father ran. And there was a lot of speculation at the time that if he had gotten a new vice president-- not to say anything negative about Dan Quayle. He's a friend of mine. But if he'd reached out and gotten a new vice president he might have won re-election.
And I didn't wanna stand in the way if in fact that kind of decision would enhance the president's prospects of winning re-election in 2004 when he was up against John Kerry. And I thought he ought to have the freedom to change anybody he wanted, including me.
See photos of: George W. Bush, Barack Obama
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