HuffPo: Some Republicans Like Cheney for Prez in 2012

President Obama's approval ratings are down -- to 50 percent per Gallup, 45 percent per Rasmussen, and negative-gazillion per Zogby -- so some conservatives are thinking about their next Presidential contender. Huffington Post's Sam Stein sees a groundswell for... Dick Cheney. Though many Americans already consider him the worst vice-president of all time, Stein finds a few Republicans operatives who say oh, why not ("if there ever was some sort of foreign policy crisis," says one, "people will look to Dick Cheney and say he had it right").

We suspect this is at least as fanciful as this morning's Eliot Spitzer campaign story. If it has any real purpose, it may be to excite hardcore conservatives who feel betrayed by the American people and seek vengeance in the little theaters of their minds. Thus columnist Charles Krauthammer claims that Cheney is winning the argument with Obama over the CIA investigations, as if Justice Department policy were a debate club exercise, and the lesser brethren fill the air with war cries ("The more [Cheney] talks the stupider and more inexperienced you [liberals] look").

If the goal is to soak up some of that, then well played, HuffPo! We will happily take some runoff.