Cheney was here yesterday. A few random thoughts based on the limited press coverage I read or saw.
- Given the ethnicity of South Dakota’s press corps, I presume the Bush-Cheney campaign people didn’t ask for the race of any of the reporters and photographers.
- While I doubt many Democrats attended, did any one attending have to sign a loyalty oath?
- I have not hesitated to criticize Stephanie Herseth in the past and even indicated I would have a hard time voting for her. Friends and bloggers have responded, “But consider the alternative.” Larry Diedrich’s comments following Cheney’s speech won that argument for them. According to the Argus and the AP, Diedrich said, “I was in lockstep with everything [Cheney] talked about.” Only automatons follow blindly. If Diedrich thinks just like Cheney, I’ll swallow my differences with some of Herseth’s positions. (Although some year, I’d like to cast a vote FOR a candidate rather than AGAINST the other candidate.)
- Although the Argus decided to put the Cheney visit on the front page, the story didn’t mention that Halliburton was fined $7.5 million by the SEC for filing “materially misleading” financial statements while Cheney was running the company. That information appeared as a four-paragraph story on page 6C (albeit in a screened box). While Cheney was not personally sanctioned, even Business Week — undoubtedly a left-wing bastion — has trouble swallowing Cheney’s purported lack of knowledge.
