Opinion: 6-0 in his elections, VP Cheney watches from the sidelines this time

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Vice President Dick Cheney -- remember him? -- finds some of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright‘s remarks ‘absolutely appalling.’ But Barack Obama‘s cousin is holding back his view of how the senator has ‘dealt with’ his retired pastor’s inflammatory words.

‘I’ve watched what’s going on on the Democratic side with great interest, and sort of blowing hot and cold in terms of who is going to win -- whether it is going to be Sen. Clinton or Sen. Obama,’ Cheney noted in a telephone interview with conservative talk show host Sean Hannity last night.

‘I thought the controversy over Rev. Wright was remarkable,’’ Cheney said. ‘I thought some of the things he said were absolutely appalling. And, you know, I haven’t gotten into the business of trying to judge how Sen. Obama dealt with it, or didn’t deal with it. But I really,...

I think – like most Americans – I was stunned at what the reverend was preaching in his church and then putting up on his website.’

Obama, the Illinois Democrat leading in the Democratic Party’s contest for the party’s presidential nomination, has disavowed the most ‘incendiary’ remarks of the retired pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago But Obama has refused to disown the man, Wright, whom the senator has known for two decades.

Controversy over Wright’s most inflammatory remarks about racial power in America has subsided in recent weeks, opinion polls show, but the flap prompted Obama to deliver a speech about race and unity that was inevitable in his campaign as potentially the first African American nominee of a major political party.

Over at the White House, President Bush and Cheney are watching the presidential races from the sidelines, though both have endorsed the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

‘We’re working hard,’ Cheney told Hannity. ‘There’s a lot of good stuff going on.’

Is he happy to be out of this political cycle?

“Well, I watch it with great interest,’ Cheney said. ‘I ran six times, I guess, statewide for Congress in Wyoming, and then twice for vice president, and it’s -- I enjoyed it. Of course, we won every time. So… that affects how I look at it, I’m sure.

‘But, no, I’m also -- you know, we are, on the one hand, a little bit detached because we’re not out there actively involved in the campaign, but on the other hand, I think like all Americans, we’ve got a huge stake in the outcome.

‘And I think the differences between the candidates are stark,’ Cheney said “And the issues are enormous, especially in terms of how it’s going to affect the national security and the future of the Republic.’

Unasked, Hannity offered: ‘I think pretty much it’s going to be Barack Obama. I think it’s going to be very difficult at this point for Hillary Clinton to catch up. What are your thoughts generally on the presidential election?’

‘Well, I am a McCain supporter,’ Cheney said. ‘I think that wouldn’t surprise anybody.’

-- Mark Silva

Mark Silva writes for the Swamp of the Chicago Tribune’s Washington bureau. Photo Credit: The White House.