Cheney's back. (Reuters)

Cheney's back. (Reuters)

Jackson Hole

"Sooner or later there is going to be a big surprise. Usually a very unpleasant one. Whether it's 9-11 or the other kinds of difficulties or crises that arrive, they always do. ... "When I think about the kind of individual I want in the Oval Office in that moment of crisis ... that man is Mitt Romney."

From deep the in recesses of his swankundisclosed location, Dick Cheney emerges to growl out his patented fear-mongering It's as if Osama bin Laden was still alive, and that guy currently in the Oval Office wasn't the one who did it. It's exactly what you'd expect from Cheney. All fear, all the time.

But this is why we all should be very afraid.

As Romney considers possible running mates, it's worth remembering that he pointed to Dick Cheney as the "kind of person I'd like to have" working with him. Likewise, the policies that Romney has advocated -- like indefinitely leaving our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, for example -- are continuations of the Bush-Cheney doctrine, version 2.0. [...] Out of Romney's 24 special advisors on foreign policy, 17 served in the Bush-Cheney administration. If Romney were to win, it's likely that many of these people would serve in his administration in some capacity -- a frightening prospect given the legacy of this particular group. The last time they were in government, it was disastrous.

The puppet-master is back. Mitt Romney might be a little bit sharper than Cheney's last tool, but when it comes to foreign policy, it doesn't show. This is someone still talking about the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia in the present tense, who says the Russian Federation is our greatest threat . With that level of knowledge, he's putty in the hands of Cheney (and Cheney stand-ins like John Bolton).

And, true to form, they're trying to keep this all secret.





@thinkprogress via TweetDeck Media BANNED from taking pictures of Romney with Cheney http://t.co/...

Romney is probably smart enough to understand that there's little to gain by appearing with Cheney, but that doesn't mean he won't be controlled by him in private. To paraphrase Cheney himself: Be afraid. Be very afraid.