Cheney's decline in polls makes him tempting target

[Nicholas_J]

By Tamara Lytle | Wasington Bureau Chief
Posted September 1, 2004


NEW YORK -- Vice President Dick Cheney takes the stage tonight at the Republican National Convention in a very different kind of spotlight than he found four years ago.

Then, he was considered the crucial gravitas for a ticket led by a young Texas governor with little experience in foreign policy and none in Congress.

Today, he is a symbol of a nation divided.

A recent poll by The Gallup Organization showed as many Americans having an unfavorable opinion of Cheney, 45 percent, as those who view him favorably, 44 percent.

And that makes the 63-year-old vice president -- who will address the convention and a nationwide television audience tonight -- one of the key issues himself. Tad Devine, a strategist for Democratic candidate John Kerry, calls Cheney's new circumstances "one of the most remarkable fallings from grace."

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/elections/orl-aseccheney01090104sep01,0,5103927.story?coll=orl-home-headlines

[SidDithers]

1. Zell for VP!

After he did such a bang up job at the RNC and on Hardball tonite.

Sid