Liz Cheney for President?

Rep. Liz Cheney (RINO-Wyo.-At-large) has a primary coming up, now in a week and a half. No one has shown any evidence that she has a snowball’s chance in an active volcano of winning. But what some people have shown is that maybe she is setting up a run for a Presidential nomination. If so, then she is probably looking to be the next Clinton – Bill, not Hillary.

What is Liz Cheney doing?

According to most political experts, Liz Cheney is doing the wrong things to win a Republican primary in Wyoming. Most recently she asked her father (former Vice-President Dick Cheney) to cut an ad for her. He did – and said this:

In our nation’s 246 year history there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our Republic than Donald Trump.

Dave Wasserman dropped a hint that Liz Cheney is not merely running for re-election to the House.

In case you still thought Rep. Liz Cheney’s goal is to win renomination to #WYAL on 8/16, here’s the ad she just launched in a GOP primary in a 70% Trump state.

And a fine strategy that is – to trot out Mister Military Industrial Complex himself to tell a pack of lies. Not to mention insults that do not bear mention in polite company.

Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now gird up your loins like a man, and I will ask you, and you instruct Me!Job 38:2-3, NASB

Is crossover voting lawful?

Add this to it: she is trying to entice Democrats in Wyoming to cross over and vote in the Republican primary. First, Republicans in Wyoming and elsewhere in the West condemn such crossover voting. (Republicans tried to outlaw it in Wyoming’s legislature last year.) Second, Wyoming might not have enough Democrats in it to sway the primary.

In Wyoming, voters can re-affiliate up to one day before Primary Day. State-wide, Democratic registrations have declined by almost seven thousand since January. Republican registrations have increased by more than eleven thousand. Professor Jim King at the University of Wyoming says this sort of crossover happens all the time. But he also estimated that Liz Cheney would have to come within five thousand votes of Hageman before such crossovers can sway the election.

If this poll in the Casper Star-Tribune is any indicator, that is not going to happen. Hageman leads Cheney 52 percent to 30 percent, with 11 percent undecided. No other Republican candidate gets more than 5 percent. So already Hageman is the runaway, overwhelming favorite. Those results, by the way, hold in all regions of Wyoming, with even distribution.

Liz Cheney for President?

That’s why Charlotte Klein at Vanity Fair believes Liz Cheney is actually teeing up a campaign for the Presidency in 2024. Everything she has done or said has soured Wyoming voters on her. But: she now has 60 percent favorable ratings among Democrats (and 13 percent among Republicans) nationwide. A CNN interviewer tweeted this video in which Liz Cheney vowed to “stay on the stage,” win or lose.

I intend to continue to be very involved and engaged – no matter what happens – in these issues that are so fundamental to, I believe, the survival of our republic.

Again, that kind of rhetoric does not impress in Wyoming. Her pronouncements play to the political left on the national stage, not the Wyoming stage. So do some of her celebrity endorsements – like Actor Kevin Costner.

She even has somehow persuaded a minor-league writer (Joseph Epstein) to accuse Republicans, on the pages of The Wall Street Journal, of threatening to kill her.

She says she has been unable to campaign openly because of credible death threats posed, one assumes, by ardent Trump supporters.

The last time anyone heard – credibly – about death threats against Liz Cheney was more than a year ago. In any case, Donald Trump has been the target of credible death threats – and actual attempts on his life. Yet he still holds pack-’em-in rallies.

Summary

Maybe the real reason Liz Cheney doesn’t campaign openly, is that she knows she wouldn’t be able to fill a living room. Not in Wyoming, she wouldn’t. She might possibly be able to fill a high-school gymnasium (outside of Wyoming) for a Presidential campaign. Which is more than Joe Biden could do.

Last Tuesday, two Minnesota Democrats publicly called for their Party to nominate someone other than Joe Biden in 2024. Liz Cheney must be looking to seek the nomination in his place. She’d never get the Republican nomination. But the Democrats have no one else to nominate except Biden – and Hillary Clinton.

The best explanation for all these facts is the Liz Cheney hopes to repeat Bill Clinton’s 1992 triumph. A Dark Horse candidate, he offered “moderation,” after Bush the Elder had broken his campaign promises. Nevertheless, Liz Cheney does not have the advantage Bill Clinton had – and if she thinks she has, she deludes herself. Then again, enough Democrats delude themselves that they might nominate her anyway. And then we will see the Catfight of the Century – between Liz and Melania.