Politics Digest

Monday, February 15, 2010; A02

Counseling Obama

Cheney offers Palin some advice on war

It had the ring of a mild rebuke -- one conservative to another.

Appearing on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, former vice president Richard B. Cheney offered a little unvarnished advice to former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, who recently offered some advice of her own to President Obama on how to improve his image among foreign policy hawks.

The show's host, Jonathan Karl, showed Cheney a recent clip of the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee commenting on the softness she has identified in Obama's foreign policy and the bellicose steps she said he needs to take to turn that around.

"If he decided to declare war on Iran or decided really to come out and do whatever he could to support Israel, which I would like him to do," she began, "if he decided to toughen up and do all that he can to secure our nation and our allies, I think people would perhaps shift their thinking a little bit and decide, 'Well, maybe he's tougher than we think he is today.' "

Karl noted that Palin appeared to be "implying that this would be a good political move for him." He asked Cheney: "What's your take?"

"I don't think a president can make a judgment like that on the basis of politics," the former vice president responded. "The stakes are too high, the consequences too significant to be treating those as simple political calculations. When you begin to talk about war, talk about crossing international borders, you talk about committing American men and women to combat -- that takes place on a plane clear above any political consideration."

Cheney himself has been accused of politicizing foreign policy. But he has been around for decades at the highest levels of wartime administrations, and his remarks had the effect of underscoring Palin's inexperience on matters of war and diplomacy.

Karl followed up by asking whether Cheney thinks Palin is qualified to be president, a question he chose to dodge.

"I haven't made a decision yet on who I'm going to support for president the next time around," Cheney said. "Whoever it is, is going to have to prove themselves capable of being president of the United States. And those tests will come during the course of campaigns, obviously.

"I think all the prospective candidates out there have got a lot of work to do if, in fact, they're going to persuade a majority of Americans that they're ready to take on the world's toughest job."

-- Scott Wilson

Fender-bender

Olympians hurt in Biden motorcade

Figure skating great Peggy Fleming and bobsled champion Vonetta Flowers sustained minor injuries Sunday in a traffic accident while riding with hockey Olympian Mike Eruzione in Vice President Biden's motorcade at the Vancouver Olympics.

Biden was in a different vehicle and was not involved in the accident.

Fleming said she was in a van with Flowers, Eruzione, and White House and Secret Service personnel. The motorcade was heading to a hockey game when the van was rear-ended.

Fleming said Biden had a physician traveling with him who tended everyone at the scene. They also were examined at a hospital as a precaution.

"It was a big, huge van. We were thrown really hard and Vonetta hit her head on the seat cushion in front of her," Fleming said.

The group never made it to the hockey game, but Fleming and Flowers later attended a figure skating competition, sitting in the row in front of Biden.

Olympic authorities said the accident happened shortly before noon. Fleming, Flowers and Eruzione were in the motorcade's next-to-last vehicle. After their van was struck, it hit the vehicle in front of it.

Scott Gordon, spokesman for the Integrated Security Unit, said the accident was possibly caused by poor road conditions and perhaps an oil slick. The accident remains under investigation.

Fleming won the gold medal at the 1968 Grenoble Olympics, and Flowers won gold at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. Eruzione was the captain of the U.S. Olympic hockey team that won the Miracle on Ice game against the Soviet Union in 1980.

"It was just a really jarring twist of the neck, but I think we're going to be okay," Fleming said.

-- Associated Press