Kindly Dick Cheney's advice for Hillary Clinton: Run!

Ever eager to offer helpful political advice from his long Washington experience, former Vice President Dick Cheney thinks former first lady, former senator and current Secretary of State Hillary  Clinton should challenge Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2012.

Cheney is doing more interviews than he would like these days. He'd like to do zero interviews.

But he's selling a book, "In My Time," which as the former high school wrestler promised, settles some scores from that long Washington experience.

This time Cheney was on ABC News with Jonathan Karl.

Part of the silent understanding in these book promotion deals is that the author tacitly agrees to answer some questions that have nothing to do with the book but might make news in return for some questions that do have something to do with the book.

Karl asked Cheney if Hillary Clinton would have made a better president than the Real Good Talker who gets a national stage again tonight to talk to Congress.

Cheney acknowledged that she hasn't expressed any interest and called her a "pretty formidable individual," high praise in Wyoming.

He added:

I think she’s probably the most competent person they’ve got in their– in their cabinet. And, frankly, I thought she was gonna win the nomination last time around.

Maybe if the Obama record is bad enough -- and these days it’s not very good, given the shape of the economy -- maybe there will be enough ferment in the Democratic Party so that there will be a primary on their side.

Then Cheney added:

I think it'd be good for the country. It'd be good for the Democratic Party.

And then he added something else:

And it might even help the Republicans.

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-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photos: Michael Reynolds / EPA; Price Chambers / NBC Dateline.

Eww! Moammar Kadafi (hearts) Condoleezza Rice

Apparently, longtime Libyan despot Moammar Kadafi did not have a whole lot of time to load up the U-Haul when he left his immense housing compound in Tripoli the other day.

Ransacking rebels -- are there any other kind? -- are still apparently going through the personal treasure troves of the strange fellow who's ruled Libya since Barack Obama was an elementary school pupil who thought fundraisers were for classroom cookies or school magazine subscription drives.

This is part of the ritual dismantling of despotic regimes familiar to the aftermath of such downfalls.

Remember when American troops were going through the house of Saddam Hussein's mistress in Baghdad a few years ago?  They found the predictable 6,000 handguns for amusement. Wine. Decadent impressionistic artwork of females whose faces were uncloaked along with other anatomical areas.

Most embarrassing perhaps was the revelation that ironman Hussein, one of the world's most evil men who killed thousands of innocents for no particular reason, put up with a household companion who had a particular female fetish for piling brightly colored and totally useless little pillows all over the beds and chairs each morning and then removing them again each night.

Anyway, jubilant rebels in Tripoli are showing off proof today that the self-appointed Col. Kadafi was, in addition to torture and terrorism, into scrapbooking.

And Condoleezza Rice.

He had several scrapbooks devoted to the former professor, campaign advisor, national security advisor and secretary of State for George W. Bush.

Kadafi has a longtime fondness for women; he had his own "elite" female security force and, of course, purportedly numerous mistresses who've told tales for pay of lavish gifts and decadent lifestyles, if you can believe there's hypocrisy in high places.

The smart female friends, many of them non-Libyan, retired from his circle a few years ago. Kadafi also spoke glowingly of Rice a few years ago as a strong African woman.

Rice is an avid sports fan. She's now returned to the faculty of Stanford University and the Hoover Institution, disdaining repeated media talk of a political career and still dreaming of becoming commissioner of the National Football League someday. She also has an eagerly anticipated memoir coming out this fall, "No Higher Honor."

Rice, of course, is long accustomed to the public spotlight and wary of its fickle ways. She used to tell the story that as a member of Exxon's board of directors she once had an oil tanker named for her.

She appreciated the intended honor but with a smile found it a dubious distinction because "there's only one reason an oil tanker with my name would ever come up in the news -- and it's not a good one."

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Libyan ladies locked and loaded to discuss feminine issues

 -- Andrew Malcolm

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Photos: Ammar Abd Rabbo / Abaca Press via MCT (Rebels in Tripoli display the Condoleezza Rice scrapbooks found in Kadafi's compound); Alex Quesada / Los Angeles Times (Rice, 2004).

Sarah Palin in Iowa for premiere of 'The Undefeated,' a new chapter in the politics of documentaries

 
 

Sarah Palin heads to Iowa on Tuesday, but whether or not electoral politics are involved is in the eye of the beholder.

Palin has to face jury duty in July in Alaska, but, according to the Christian Science Monitor, the former Alaska governor and her husband, Todd Palin, are first going to Pella, Iowa, for the June 28 premiere of "The Undefeated."

Filmmaker Stephen K. Bannon's documentary portrait of Palin and her political record goes into limited distribution by ARC Entertainment in AMC Theatres the week of July 15 (locally, it will be in the City of Orange, in Orange County).

Interestingly -- likely coincidentally -- President Obama will also be in Iowa on Tuesday, promoting manufacturing jobs in Bettendorf. No word whether the two have a date to split corn dogs, but we doubt it.

Approached by Palin's camp to produce short films for SarahPAC, Bannon decided instead....

Hillary Clinton to head the World Bank? The answer is no, No and also NO!

The Reuters news agency created news bulletins around the world today with breaking word that President Obama's former Democratic political rival and current Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was angling to become the new president of the World Bank.

Clinton, who was visiting the United Arab Emirates today to talk about the 3-month-old Libyan war that was supposed to last days not weeks, sent word through her spokesman, Phillippe Reines,

It's completely untrue and Reuters was told that.

Then, in case you weren't listening, he added:

Secretary Clinton has not had any conversations with the president, the White House or anyone about moving to the World Bank.

Then, in case you might have missed his drift, Reines added:

She has expressed absolutely no interest in the job...[and] would not take it if offered.

Then, in case you weren't listening to Phillippe, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney took a moment off from warning Middle Eastern regimes to add:

The story is incorrect, wrong, untrue.

Ah, but neither spokesman said it might not be true someday perhaps.

RELATED:

Why Hillary Clinton must run for president in 2012

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Karim Sahib / AFP/Getty Images

Obama, late for his own Middle East speech, keeps viewers and anxious TV types waiting, globally

Whether on the campaign trail or in the White House, President Barack Obama has not been known for his punctuality.

Today's "major speech" on Middle East and North Africa foreign policy was majorly late, more than a half-hour so. Which may not seem long in the flow of history.  But try telling that to TV hosts and viewers around the world waiting for the big guy to step to his microphone. (Photos of the international TV play are right here.)

The address, held in the sumptuous Benjamin Franklin Room at the State Department in Washington, was originally announced for 11:40 a.m., but it was 12:09 p.m. before Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton stepped to the podium, and five more minutes after that before the president appeared. Obama was also nearly an hour late for the announced time of what became his Osama bin Laden is dead speech May 1.

Delays like this cause one of the most feared things in live broadcasting -- dead air. Preventing ...

Obama speech text: Middle East has 'a choice between hate and hope'

President Obama's speech on Middle East and North Africa, as provided by the White House

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you very much.  Thank you.  Please, have a seat.  Thank you very much.  I want to begin by thanking Hillary Clinton, who has traveled so much these last six months that she is approaching a new landmark -- one million frequent flyer miles.  (Laughter.)  I count on Hillary every single day, and I believe that she will go down as one of the finest Secretaries of State in our nation’s history.

The State Department is a fitting venue to mark a new chapter in American diplomacy.  For six months, we have witnessed an extraordinary change taking place in the Middle East and North Africa.  Square by square, town by town, country by country, the people have risen up to demand their basic human rights.  Two leaders have stepped aside.  More may follow.  And though these countries may be a great distance from our shores, we know that our own future is bound to this region by the forces of economics and security, by history and by faith.
 
Today, I want to talk about this change -- the forces that are driving it and how we can respond in a way that advances our values and strengthens our security.

Now, already, we’ve done much to shift our foreign policy following a decade defined by....

Sunday shows: Haley, Gingrich, Holder, Huckabee

ABC's "This Week" with Christiane Amanpour: Gov. Nikki Haley (R-S.C.), with Sheila Bair, Roger Altman, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Richard Haas, Robert Kagan, George Will, Amy Roberts and Cokie Roberts.

Bloomberg's "Political Capital with Al Hunt:" Obama Atty. Gen. Eric Holder.

CBS' "Face the Nation" with Bob Schieffer: House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) with excerpts from Wednesday's taped town hall with President Obama.

CNN Fareed Zakaria "GPS": Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Kishore Mahbubani, Joshua Cooper Ramo, Eric Schmidt and Anne-Marie Slaughter.

CNN's "State of the Union" with Candy Crowley: Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), Michael Gerson, Joe Lockhart, Admiral Dennis Blair and John Negroponte.

Fox News Channel "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace: Former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.), Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), Sens. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), with Brit Hume, Nina Easton, Mort Zuckerman and Kimberley Strassel.

NBC's "Meet the Press" with David Gregory: Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), with Peggy Noonan, Matt Bai, Helene Cooper and Mark Halperin.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Why wait until Sunday for politics? Click here now to follow The Ticket via Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or follow us @latimestot. Our Facebook Like page is over here. We're also available on Kindle now. Use the ReTweet buttons above to share this item with friends.

Photo: Associated Press (Haley).

Sunday shows: Cheney, Donilon, Daniels, Rice, Kerry

ABC's "This Week" with Christiane Amanpour: Condoleeza Rice, Pakistan Ambssador Husain Haqqani and Obama security advisor Tom Donilon, with Liz Cheney, Tom Ricks, George Will, Jake Tapper, Martha Raddatz, Lawrence Wright and Pierre Thomas.

Bloomberg's "Political Capital" with Al Hunt: Gov. Mitch Daniels (R-Ind.).

CBS' "Face the Nation" with Bob Schieffer: Donald Rumsfeld and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.).

CNN Fareed Zakaria "GPS": Rice, Gen. Michael Hayden, Richard Haas, Haqqani and Jugnu Mohsin.

CNN's "State of the Union" with Candy Crowley: Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Imd.), Anita Dunn, Tom Davis and Donilon.

Fox News Channel "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace: Former Vice President Dick Cheney and Donilon, with Bill Kristol, Paul Gigot, Mara Liasson and Juan Williams.

NBC's "Meet the Press" with David Gregory: Rudy Giuliani, Michael Chertoff and Hayden, with Bob Woodward, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Mike Murphy.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Why wait until Sunday for politics? Click here now to follow The Ticket via Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or follow us @latimestot. Our Facebook Like page is over here. We're also available on Kindle now. Use the ReTweet buttons above to share this item with friends.

Photo: Office of the Vice President (Cheney)

Sunday shows: Rumsfeld, Clinton, Gates, McCain

ABC's "This Week" with Christiane Amanpour: Donald Rumsfeld, secretaries Robert Gates of Defense and Hillary Rodham Clinton of State with George Will, Joe Sestak, Jeffrey Goldberg and Mona Eltahawy.

Bloomberg's "Political Capital" with Al Hunt: Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

CBS "Face the Nation" with Bob Schieffer: Clinton and Gates.

CNN "Fareed Zakaria GPS": Jane Harman, Robert Kagan, Richard Haas, John Negroponte and Malcolm Gladwell.

CNN "State of the Union" with Candy Crowley: Gen. Michael Hayden, Stephen Hadley,  Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Alice Rivlin and Joe Cirincione.

"Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace: Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John McCain (R-Ariz). and Newt Gingrich, with Brit Hume, Bill Kristol, Juan Williams and Nina Easton.

NBC "Meet the Press" with David Gregory: Gates and Clinton, with Savannah Guthrie, Tom Ricks, Ted Koppel and Bob Woodward.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Why wait until Sunday for politics? Click here now to follow The Ticket via Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or follow us @latimestot. Our Facebook Like page is over here. We're also available on Kindle now. Use the ReTweet buttons above to share this item with friends.

Photo: Joseph Kaczmarek / Associated Press

Ex-Illinois state senator changes mind on U.S. government causing Middle Eastern regime change

With President Obama locked out of his own White House (see photo on right and video below), Jay Carney stepped up and issued the latest in a series of official denunciations Thursday of a Middle Eastern dictator doing deadly things to demonstrators.

Such warnings about dictators behaving badly have been the political precursor this winter to even more serious American pronouncements and foreign trips by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who's off again this weekend.

First Tunisia, then Egypt have been warned by this White House under what is becoming known as the Obama Doctrine.

The emerging Obama Doctrine can be roughly described as being caught off-guard by foreign events, issuing numerous rhetorical warnings that sound swell and waiting for somebody else to do something because the president's too busy calling on someone to do something about the quality of American education, which has polled better than foreign forays.

Coming days after Syrian government agents began killing demonstrators there, is Carney's....