Cheney Doubts Palin Could Have Been VP

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Elspeth Reeve 2,452 Views Sep 2, 2011

Former Vice President Dick Cheney went on Laura Ingraham's radio show Friday to promote his new memoir, which, as we keep noting, he had predicted would cause heads to explode all over Washington. But he made a few comments that might make heads explode in Alaska, too. 

Ingraham asked Cheney what's required to do his old job. His first answer? "Thick skin" -- something Karl Rove has complained Sarah Palin is sorely lacking and needs to develop as she considers running for president in 2012. But Cheney implies Palin might have been too thin-skinned to handle the No. 2 spot:
Thick skin. You need the capacity to turn on the tube every night and watch the late night comedians make you the punch line, tell a lot of jokes, it goes with the turf and I'm not above telling a few of those stories myself. But the fact of the matter is you really do need to have the capacity to do what you think is right, to offer the advice you think the president of the country needs, you have to remember you are not in charge of anything, you don't run anything as Vice President. And you do need to have thick skin, you'll be subject to a lot of criticism, some of it funny, some of it not so funny.
 
The conservative talk show host then gets more explicit:
 
Ingraham: "Sarah Palin comes to mind when I think about that because she was set to become No. 2 after the Bush administration. Do you think that was, you know, well suited?"
 
Cheney: "Well I've never gotten around the question of her having left the Governorship of Alaska midterm. I've never heard that adequately explained so that I could understand why, how she decided in her first term to step down and still be, I'd like to know more about that."

Listen to the whole interview here:

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