Artikel vom 15. August
2000
Der 59jährige Richard "Dick" Cheney gilt als kühl
aber überlegt, methodisch, charakterstark und loyal. Er begann seine Karriere
1969 in der Administration von Präsident Nixon. Im November 1975 ernannte ihn
Präsident Ford im Alter von 34 Jahren zum Chief of Staff im Weissen Haus, wo
Cheney bis zum Ende der Ford-Administration im Januar 1977 blieb. 1978
wurde Cheney für den Bundesstaat Wyoming ins Repräsentantenhaus gewählt, wo
er dank fünf aufeinanderfolgenden Wiederwahlen bis 1989 blieb. In Washington stieg er bis
zur Position des House Minority Whip (1988-89) innerhalb der GOP
auf. Ein Blick auf sein
Abstimmungsverhalten im Kongress weisen auf eine äusserst konservative
Grundhaltung hin: Er wandte sich gegen stärkere Waffenkontrollen, gegen die
Abtreibung, gegen staatliche Hilfen zur Abtreibung bei Opfern von
Vergewaltigungen sowie 1986 gegen einen Appell an Südafrika, Nelson Mandela
freizulassen,. Von 1989 bis 1993 Cheney diente er Präsident Bush als
Verteidigungsminister. In seine Amtszeit fiel die amerikanische Invasion von
Panama sowie die Operation Desert Storm gegen den Irak von Saddam Hussein. Cheney arbeitete
nach 1993 in der Privatwirtschaft, zuletzt als Manager für
eine Zulieferfirma der Ölindustrie mit rund 100,000 Angestellten. Er
verdiente rund zwei Millionen Dollar jährlich, plus ein dreifaches an
Aktienoptionen. Daneben übte er einige Aufsichtsratsmandate aus. Pikant ist,
dass Cheney noch im Mai vor Aktionären herausstrich, er strebe kein weiteres
politisches Amt mehr an. In den 1980er Jahren hatte er drei Herzattacken und
musste 1988 eine Bypass-Operation über sich ergehen lassen. Cheney ist
Methodist. Er ist seit 1964
mit seiner Schülerliebe Lynn verheiratet, die früher die National Endowment
for the Humanities leitete, Buchautorin sowie eine konservative Kolumnistin bei CNN ist.
Die 31jährige Tochter der Cheneys, Mary, ist lesbisch. Ihr Vater nimmt eine
konservative Position bezüglich der Rechte homosexueller ein. Trotzdem
übernahm Mary einen Vollzeitjob in der Wahlkampagne ihres Vaters.
Nachfolgend die englische Originalversion von Cheneys "acceptance speech" als Kandidat
für die Vizepräsidentschaft am Parteitag der GOP in Philadelphia vom 3. August
2000:
Mr. Chairman, delegates, and fellow citizens: I am honored by your nomination,
and I accept it. I thank you for giving such a warm welcome to Lynne and me
and our family. And, my friends in the Wyoming delegation, I especially
want to thank you for your support. The first campaign stop that Lynne and I
were privileged to make with Governor and Laura Bush was in Casper, Wyoming
... our home town, where Lynne and I graduated from high school 41 years ago.
The love and support and enthusiasm of the people of our home state, have
buoyed our spirits and strengthened our resolve. We are going to win this
election. We will prevail.
I have to tell you that I never expected to be in this
position. Eight years ago, when I completed my years as secretary of defense,
I loaded a U-Haul truck and drove home to Wyoming. I didn't plan on a return
to public office. Lynne and I settled into a new private life. There was time
for fishing and grandchildren, and we were content. But now I am glad to be
back in the arena, and let me tell you why:
I have been given an opportunity to serve beside a man
who has the courage, and the vision, and the goodness, to be a great president:
Governor George W. Bush. I have been in the company of leaders. I was there on
August 9, 1974, when Gerald Ford assumed the presidency during our gravest
constitutional crisis since the Civil War. I saw how character and decency can
dignify a great office and unite a great nation.
I was a congressman when another man of integrity lived
in the White House. I saw a president restore America's confidence, and
prepare the foundation for victory in the cold war. I saw how one man's will
can set the nation on a new course. I learned the meaning of leadership from
President Ronald Reagan.
I left Congress to join the cabinet of President
Reagan's successor. And I'm proud to say that I'm not the only man on this
ticket who has learned from the example of President George Bush. I saw
resolve in times of crisis...the steady hand that shaped an alliance and threw
back a tyrant. He earned the respect and confidence of the men and women of
America's armed forces.
I have been in the company of leaders. I know what it
takes. And I see in our nominee the qualities of mind and spirit our nation
needs, and our history demands. Big changes are coming to Washington. To serve
with this man, in this cause, is a chance I would not miss. This country has
given me so much opportunity. When Lynne and I were growing up, we had so many
blessings. We went to good public schools, where we had fine, dedicated
teachers. Our mothers, like our fathers, worked outside the home so that we
could go to college. We lived in a caring community, where parents were
confident that their children's lives could be even better than their own. And
that is as it should be, and as it can be again.
We can make our public
schools better. We can reform the tax code, so that families can keep
more of what they earn ...more dollars that they can spend on what they value,
rather than on what the government thinks is important. We can restore the ideals of honesty and honor that must
be a part of our national life, if our children are to thrive. When I look at
the administration now in Washington, I am dismayed by opportunities
squandered. Saddened by what might have been, but never was. These have been
years of prosperity in our land, but little purpose in the White House. Bill
Clinton vowed not long ago to hold onto power "until the last hour of the
last day." That is his right. But, my friends, that last hour is coming.
That last day is near. The wheel has turned. And it is time. It is time for
them to go.
George W. Bush will repair what has been damaged. He is
a man without pretense and without cynicism. A man of principle, a man of
honor. On the first hour of the first day he will restore decency and
integrity to the Oval Office. He will show us that national leaders can be
true to their word and that they can get things done by reaching across the
partisan aisle, and working with political opponents in good faith and common
purpose. I know he'll do these things, because for the last five years I've
watched him do them in Texas.
George W. Bush came to the governor's office with a
clear view of what he wanted to achieve. He said he would bring higher
standards to public schools, and he has. Walk into those schools today, and
you will see children with better scores, classrooms with better discipline
and teachers with better pay. He pledged to reduce taxes, and he has. He did it twice,
with the biggest tax reduction in state history. And not only is the budget in
balance, it's running a surplus of more than a billion dollars. He promised to reform the legal system, to get rid of
junk lawsuits -- and he has. Today the legal system serves all the people, not
just the trial lawyers.
None of these reforms came easily. When he took office,
both houses of the Legislature were controlled by Democrats, and the House of
Representatives still is. But Governor Bush doesn't accept old lines of
argument and division. He brings people together, reaching across party lines
to do the people's business. He leads by conviction, not calculation. You will
never see him pointing the finger of blame for failure; you will only see him
sharing the credit for success. That is exactly the spirit that is missing
from Washington. In the last eight years, that city has often become a scene
of bitterness, and ill will, and partisan strife.
American politics has always been a tough business, even
in 1787 here in Philadelphia, when George Washington himself wondered if
delegates could ever agree on a constitution. They did agree, as Americans
always have when it mattered most, guided by the public interest and a decent
regard for one another. But in Washington today, politics has become war by
other means, an endless onslaught of accusation, a constant setting of groups
one against the other. This is what Bill Bradley was up against, and others
before him. The Gore campaign, Senator Bradley said, is "a thousand
promises, a thousand attacks." We are all a little weary of the
Clinton-Gore routine. But the wheel has turned. And it is time, it is time for
them to go.
In this election, they will speak endlessly of risk. We
will speak of progress. They will make accusations. We will make proposals.
They will feed fear. We will appeal to hope. They will offer more lectures,
and legalisms, and carefully worded denials. We offer another way, a better
way, and a stiff dose of truth.
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For eight years, the achievement gap in our schools has
grown worse, poor and disadvantaged children falling further and further
behind. For all of their sentimental talk about children, Clinton and Gore
have done nothing to help children oppressed by bureaucracy, monopoly, and
mediocrity. But those days are ending. When George W. Bush is president and I
am vice president, tests will be taken, results will be measured, and schools
will answer to parents and no child will be left behind.
For eight years, Clinton and Gore have talked about
Social Security reform, never acting, never once offering a serious plan to
save the system. In the time left to them, I have every confidence they'll go
right on talking about it. Those days are passing too. There will be no more
spreading of fear and panic, no more dividing of generations against one
another, no more delaying and excuse making and shirking of our duties to the
elderly. George W. Bush and I, with the united Congress, will save Social
Security.
For eight years, Clinton and Gore have extended our
military commitments while depleting our military power. Rarely has so much
been demanded of our armed forces, and so little given to them in return.
George W. Bush and I are going to change that, too. I have seen our military
at its finest, with the best equipment, the best training, and the best
leadership. I'm proud of them. I have had the responsibility for their
well-being. And I can promise them now, help is on the way. Soon, our men and
women in uniform will once again have a commander in chief they can respect,
one who understands their mission and restores their morale.
And now, as the man from Hope goes home to New York, Mr.
Gore tries to separate himself from his leader's shadow. But somehow we will
never see one without thinking of the other. Does anyone -- Republican or
Democrat -- seriously believe that under Mr. Gore, the next four years would
be any different from the last eight? If the goal is to unite our country, to
make a fresh start in Washington, to change the tone of our politics, can
anyone say with conviction that the man for the job is Al Gore? They came in
together. Now let us see them off together.
Ladies and gentlemen, the wheel has turned, and it is
time, it is time for them to go. This campaign will not be easy. Governor Bush
and I face a real fight. We're ready for it. We know the territory, we know
the opposition, and we know what's at stake. We will give all we have to this
cause. And in the end, with your help, George W. Bush will defeat this vice
president, and I will replace him.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are so privileged to be
citizens of this great republic. I was reminded of that time and again when I
was in my former job, as secretary of defense. I traveled a lot and when I
came home, my plane would land at Andrews Air Force Base, and I'd return to
the Pentagon by helicopter. When you make that trip from Andrews to the Pentagon,
and you look down on the city of Washington, one of the first things you see
is the Capitol, where all the great debates that have shaped 200 years of
American history have taken place. You fly down along the Mall and see the
monument to George Washington, a structure as grand as the man himself. To the
north is the White House, where John Adams once prayed "that none but
honest and wise men may ever rule under this roof." Next you see the
memorial to Thomas Jefferson, the third president and the author of our
Declaration of Independence. And then you fly over the memorial to Abraham
Lincoln, this greatest of presidents, the man who saved the union. Then you
cross the Potomac, on approach to the Pentagon. But just before you settle
down on the landing pad, you look upon Arlington National Cemetery -- its
gentle slopes and crosses row on row. I never once made that trip without being reminded how
enormously fortunate we all are to be Americans, and what a terrible price
thousands have paid so that all of us -- and millions more around the world --
might live in freedom.
This is a great country, ladies and gentlemen, and it
deserves great leadership. Let us go forth from this hall in confidence and
courage, committed to restoring decency and honor to our republic. Let us go
forth, knowing that our cause is just, and elect George W. Bush the
forty-third president of the United States. Thank you.
Siehe auch die Artikel zu Bush,
Gore
und Lieberman.
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