While there is no question that the media uproar about Cheney and the shooting of his hunting partner is much ado about nothing, the fact remains that the media wants nothing more than to bring down this administration. Bush, unlike any GOP president since Richard Nixon, inspires unbridled hate and bitterness on the part of the left and the media. Unlike Nixon, however, much of the suspicions and distrust of Bush are unwarranted.

We have noted on numerous occasions how the president has allowed the left to set the tone of debate in this country. The president stays silent as his rivals sow the seeds of doubt about the war in Iraq or terrorism in general. Mums the word for the White House when the left attacks the US economy. Silence is the credo when the left suggests that his plans only benefit the rich. As Joseph Goebbles can attest, when a lie is shouted often enough and loud enough it will gradually come to be accepted as fact, especially when it goes unchallenged, as the lies of the left have been. It is for this reason that public support for Bush continues to languish in the doldrums.

Given such an environment, the president simply can’t afford incidents like the latest Aaron Burr-esque escapade involving Vice President Cheney. Regardless off fault, the Cheney incident has been handled poorly by this administration further reflecting their complete and total naiveté with regard to the media. No administration in history has done a worse job at sending messages or communicating with the public than the administration of George W. Bush. It is very likely that this administration will go done in history as a failure, not so much because of failed policies but do to its inability to communicate ideas. Whereas Reagan was known as the Great communicator, Bush, and his White House cronies, is the Great Non-communicator.

Knowing these failures, how the White House could allow this hunting incident to eclipse news of a nuclear Iran is beyond the mental capacity of most Nobel laureates to understand. The president simply can’t afford any further distractions. Realizing, as he must, that the left will exploit any opportunity to distract the public from the pressing issues confronting this nation, the Bush administration should have anticipated such an up-roar and planned accordingly. The left has been calling for Cheney’s head for some time now, how could such a consequence not be understood. Exactly who is running things in the White House?
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-02-15-cheney-tv_x.htm