Poll: Nearly one in four say Cheney worst veep in US history Mike Sheehan

Published: Monday December 22, 2008





Print This Email This Just one percent say he's best vice president ever



U.S. vice presidents aren't generally known for notoriety attained while in office, but Dick Cheney has left a new mark, a recent survey suggests.



A CNN poll of over a thousand Americans indicates that almost 25 percent believe Cheney is the worst veep in U.S. history.



"An additional 41 percent feel that Cheney is a poor vice president," CNN reports, "with 34 percent rating him a good number two." Just one percent surveyed rank him at the top.



Despite his unpopularity, Cheney "will leave office as one of the most powerful vice presidents in history," says CNN, playing a "crucial role in many of the Bush administration's crucial policies" as well as being "a major proponent of using and expanding executive powers."



For his part, Cheney doesn't seem to be bothered by the way the public perceives him. Seemingly more interested in historical posterity, he's embarked on a tour of sorts to "[make] the affirmative case for the Bush legacy" as a CNN polling director put it, defend some of his actions as vice president, as well as take issue with how incoming VP Joe Biden will dramatically tone down the role of the second-in-command to suit tradition.



"I'm very comfortable with where we are and what we achieved substantively," Cheney said Sunday on Fox News. "Frankly, I would not want to be one of those guys who spends all his time reading the polls. I think people like that shouldn't serve in these jobs."



He also doesn't regret cursing at Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) back in 2004 on the floor of the Senate. "I thought he merited it at the time," said Cheney.



The CNN article can be read in full at this link.



