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Dick Cheney’s “So?” Revisited

Posted by DORIAN DE WIND in War.
Dec 13th, 2008 | Comments

This week’s TIME issue, “The List Issue,” takes an interesting and comprehensive look back at 2008 through a “collection of serious and not-so-serious Top 10 lists.”

The list includes:

*Top 10 under-reported stories

*Top 10 medical breakthroughs

*Top 10 green stories

*Top 10 political lines

*Top 10 movies

*Top 10 books

Of course, also the “top 10 scandals.” This one should have given the TIME staff a nearly limitless universe to choose from.

And several more.

One that caught my interest was the “top 10 quotes,” as I feel that words publicly spoken by people, especially by those in leadership positions, can “capture the very essence of their character and personality.”

One of the top 10 quotes just happened to be one single word long, and a “little word” at that: “So?”

TIME describes this quote as: “Dick Cheney, when told that two-thirds of Americans did not support the war in Iraq.”

In my first post for The Moderate Voice, “Dick Cheney’s “So?” Or The Power of “Little Words,” I described my reaction, in part, as follows:

Dick Cheney responded with one word in a recent interview when he was asked what he thought about polls that indicate two-thirds of Americans believe the war in Iraq was not worth fighting, that the cost in lives was not worth the gains.

One single word!

“So?” the vice president said.

So. Even a “little word” is powerful, carries significance and — on many occasions — can and has become a defining moment for the person using that or those “little words.”

When pressed by the reporter whether he cares about the opinion of the American people, instead of bristling at the suggestion, Dick Cheney tried to emend his response by saying “I think you can not be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls.” You know, those pesky polls that merely reflect the will of the people.

.

.

“So?”

Condescending? Slip of the tongue? Or a slip in Cheney’s gravitas?

This from a man who assured us “we will be greeted as liberators” … “I think they’re in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.”

From time to time our leaders utter words that not only define their term in office and their legacy, but words that also capture the very essence of their character and personality.

This is certainly one of those occasions.

Today, eight months later, the impression which that “one little word” made on me, and my impression of the man who said it, have not changed, and I am glad that TIME reminds us of it in their “Top 10 quotes.”

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mlhradio

Pretty much sums up Cheney's opinion of America in general.

"Mr. Cheney, half a million people lost their jobs last month."

Cheney: "So?"

"Over four thousand soldiers died a meaningless death thousands of miles from home, in large part because of you."

"So?"

"Millions of children go to bed hungry every night in America."

"So?"

The list of possibilities is endless. It's just the crass contempt of that one little word that is so painful - how someone like that could end up as a public servant is just, so, disheartening. Not sure if it will be the one, primary thing that Cheney will be remembered by, but it certainly ranks in the top five (along with when he told Leahy to 'Fcuk Off', or when when he when to visit the Katrina wreckage and a passerby told Cheney to 'Go fcuk yourself', or my favorite, when he shot his friend in the face with a shotgun - that will end up as his "Ford trips down stairs" moment that will live on through history, probably)

vwcat

Cheney is a sociopath. Bush is an idiot. What a pair to have running this country for the past 8 years and we wonder why this country and the world are so messed up?

river

dear Dorian thanks for this interesting read. . .perhaps it is something more basic. . .back in 1999 right after President Bush was elected. . .the Secret Special service came up with code names for the newly elected. . .There was Angler for Dick Cheney. . .Author for Lyn Cheney. . .Tippy for President Bush and Librarian for Laura Bush. . .At the time i wondered if the code names could be synthesized with a single variable that brought them together. . .After the onstart of the Iraqi war an answer came floating in. . .

I do not know how old you are. . .but back in the day. . . when these four where in first grade all across the country there were standard first grade readers. . .It was a series of books about Dick and Jane. . .

If one takes a slight angle on Anglers name the name Dick is revealed . . . in the elementary readers Dick's dog was TIP thusTippy. . .Most Boomers learned to read with our first words being spoken from Dick to Tip. . . "Come Tip Come. . .Down Tip Down. . .Sit Tip Sit. . .No Tip No. . . Good Tip Good. . .Bad Tip Bad. . .". . .

Remember how Lyn Cheney was portrayed at the 1999 convention as the one to put Dick's life back together and set the guidelines as to how and what he was going to do with his life. . .hummm . . .kinda like an Author. . .and dear sweet Laura Bush like a good librarian. . .how many times has she been called upon to make pretty the failed policies and tried to keep George from falling off the shelf?. . .

Perhaps the Secret Service was sending the American people code way back then. . .So?. . . . after eight years we can probably surmise that No Child Left Behind is another failed policy. . . . "So?". . . Do you think No Child Left Behind counts all the innocent children killed and maimed in war in the (Left Behind) scores?. . . "So?". . .is not a big power word or indicator of complex indepth thinking but rather the kind of word the playground bully uses during the time Tip is learning to fetch . . .

Thank goodness our President elect has strong grounding in Sesame Street. . .

I already regret being bitchy here. . .but Blogojevich has me wanting to bite the flag lapel criminals these days. . .

D. E.Rodriguez

Interesting take, river, and ,yes, I am old enough...although I didn't attend elementary school in the U.S. So, I am not too familiar with Dick and Jane. I have, however and regrettably, become very familiar with Angler and Tippy and their aftermaths...

Thanks

Dorian

StockBoySF

river, I agree with Dorian- interesting take. Thanks!

Your last line, "I already regret being bitchy here. . .but Blogojevich has me wanting to bite the flag lapel criminals these days. . ." made me think of today's Frank Rich's column in the NY Times. Not specifically about Cheney and his "so" but about accountability (which is a piece of Cheney's attitude of "so") and Blogojevich.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/opinion/14ric...

StockBoySF

Dorian, who would have thought that such a simple word would have such powerful meanings? Thanks for the posts (the original one and today's).

D. E.Rodriguez

Thanks, SB. It might be an interesting task to research if there are any shorter and more, or equally profound quotes...

Dorian

D. E.Rodriguez

Just found a very short one, "Nuts!" said to have been exclaimed by General McAuliffe when he heard that the Germans wanted him to surrender. It may have been a little longer, like "Aw, nuts!" . The date was December 22nd, 1944

StockBoySF

Dorian, LOL! Thanks! Well let's see... We went from a four letter word, nuts 64 years ago to a two letter word, so, this year. I suppose in another 60 years or so there'll be another incident involving some dictator (or wannabe dictator) and his answer to a question will simply be "I", with a lot of meaning behind it. It almost makes me want to write a fiction book about a dictator and everything such an answer (of "I") could mean. I mean "I" is a very powerful word in itself. I could easily see a wannabe dictator answering some question with I. Maybe the wannabe dictator in the book can be modeled after Cheney. I should do it! :) Aye!

D. E.Rodriguez

SB, you may be on to something. I know it is too much to ask for, but "I" indeed could become the most famous, shortest quote ever, if--for example-- Bush were to answer to the question:

"Sir, who is most responsible for the mess of the last eight years?" with a simple "I"

Of course, all bets are off, if he answers "Me, or--as Limbaugh has already hinted to--" Obama."

StockBoySF

Dorian, I agree.

Almost as good as Shakespeare. :)

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