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Cheney Attempts To Prove He’s Not ‘Isolated’: On Saturday I Went ‘Shopping With My Daughter’

Last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said that President Bush was suffering from Nixon-esque levels of isolation:

The president is as isolated, I believe, on the Iraq issue as Richard Nixon was when he was hunkered down in the White House.

Yesterday morning on CBS’s Face the Nation, host Bob Schieffer asked Vice President Cheney if he agreed with Reid’s statement. Cheney replied that it was a “ridiculous notion.” His rebuttal: “I spend as much time as I can to get out and do other things, be at home in Wyoming or, yesterday, I managed to go shopping with my daughter for a birthday present for granddaughters.” Watch it:

[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2007/04/cheneycbsny.320.240.flv]

It’s good to know that Cheney isn’t isolated from his daughter or his ranch in Wyoming. But that doesn’t mean he and the President aren’t isolated from the American public on the issue of Iraq. Sixty-six percent of the American public disapprove of the Bush administration’s handling of the war. Fifty-three percent do not think the United States will succeed in Iraq.

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Additionally, Bush’s approval rating now sits at 31 percent. Cheney’s favorability rating is at 18 percent. In comparison, Richard Nixon’s approval rating in the summer of 1973 (when the Watergate scandal was in full swing) was 39 percent.

Transcript:

SCHIEFFER: Senator Reid, who you mentioned earlier, the Democratic leader, said that he thought that President Bush has become more isolated over Iraq than Richard Nixon was during Watergate. You were around during those days.

CHENEY: I was.

SCHIEFFER: Do you think that’s true?

CHENEY: I do not. I think that’s a ridiculous notion.

SCHIEFFER: It’s a ridiculous notion. Do you feel you have become more isolated?

CHENEY: I don’t think so. I spend as much time as I can to get out and do other things. Be at home in Wyoming or yesterday I managed to go shopping with my daughter for a birthday present for granddaughters. But, you know, I obviously spend most of my time on the job.