I think this is about right:
Cheney was sober and dry. He’s not the attack dog. He’s the explaining hedgehog. Some people find him evil and creepy, I know; they hate him like sand in a bathing suit. And some people would much prefer to have John Edwards as Vice-President. I understand. But imagine John Edwards shaved bald, lightly scarred about the cheeks with acid, and suffering a facial paralysis that hampered his ability to flash a megawatt smile. In other words, reduce him down to his abilities, not his properties. In the event the government was decapitated in January of 2005, would you prefer that the person in charge of making the next ten decisions was Cheney or Edwards? Keep in mind that these decisions must be made quickly, and there isn’t much time to explain what each of them mean, and there are ten more sets of ten coming down the pike.
It helps to be up to speed, in other words.
Yes, yes, I know. Halliburton. But if you wanted to make money rebuilding a country’s infrastructure, wouldn’t it be easier to drop sanctions in exchange for lucractive contracts fulfilled with the help of the existing regime?