The Difference of a Decade

After reading the article, Six Sources of Liebermania, where Josh Greenman attempts to categorize the left's contempt for Joe Lieberman, I was brought back, for just a moment, to the Presidential race of 10 years ago. More specifically, I was brought back to the Vice-Presidential debate of that year - a sit-down between Lieberman and Dick Cheney. I was mesmerized by that debate, as it was full of substance and civility, two things not always present in our modern system of political discourse. I remember thinking, after that debate, that I would love to have the chance to vote for a Cheney/Lieberman, or even Lieberman/Cheney ticket, and that either one of them would make a better President than either of the stiffs at the top of the ticket.

That is how I thought of both George W. Bush and Al Gore, a couple of stiffs. Both of them struck me as lightweights, but listening to Cheney and Lieberman... those were men, and they had what the pundits would call, gravitas, a seriousness of purpose, that could only come with the experience that they both had accumulated over the years.

Today, looking back, I stand by my assessment. I still have the utmost respect for both these men. It is interesting, though, that those two men, linked for all time by that race, would today find themselves among the most hated men in America by the political left.

What a difference a decade makes.