Discouraging words about Cheney’s wheelchair
January 21st, 2009
Former vice president Dick Cheney left the White House in a wheelchair yesterday, prompting disparaging remarks by commentators about the conveyance’s symbolism. (A White House spokesman said Cheney injured his back moving boxes.)
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews said the wheelchair “is a metaphor for the low esteem with which he’s held in this country.” (From Howard Kurtz’s Media Notes column in the Washington Post. Video with Mathews voiceover has been posted on Youtube.)
The New Yorker Magazine’s Hendrik Hertzberg compared Cheney in a wheelchair to the movie villain Dr. Strangelove, as did, apparently, NBC’s Tom Brokaw.
Robert Schlesinger, writing in U.S. News & World Reports, said Cheney in a wheelchair reminded him of James Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld (minus the white cat). Schlesinger also quoted former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson as comparing Cheney with Mr. Potter, the villain of Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life.
And from the New York Times Caucus blog:
Later today you’ll see an unfortunate metaphor for the departing Bush administration. Vice President Dick Cheney hurt a back muscle yesterday as he was moving boxes out of the vice president’s residence at the Naval Observatory. And now he plans to attend the swearing in ceremony in a wheelchair. Lame duck metaphors are too easy; but consider that Mr. Cheney’s favorability ratings are about 13 percent, while President Bush’s hover in the low 20s. But Mr. Cheney’s mode of transport makes you think about what eight years in these jobs can do to a man.
UPDATE:
From Talking Points Memo:
… Vice President Cheney is getting pushed around today in a wheelchair. Thankfully, it’s no serious medical issue. He hurt his back lugging books while moving out of the old digs. But it’s iconic. There’s no escaping the symbolism of the tired and enfeebled old guard hobbling off the stage.
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January 21st, 2009 at 5:58 pm
I, too, was bothered by the constant negative comments about the wheelchair, especially as I watched the inauguration on television whilst sitting in a wheelchair. I also noticed that gay people and disabled people disappeared from his speech … he had been quite constant in mentioning the diversity of his constituency … I thought he spoke well but this omission may simply be an omission but it may symbolize much more.
January 21st, 2009 at 4:29 pm
To me, this was something criticizable, but obviously not because of the fact that he was in a wheelchair. It’s the lying that gets me, that strikes me as ridiculous — clearly, Cheney is old, and not the most able-bodied person. I find it hard to believe that he “hurt his back lifting boxes.” He is probably just at the point where he has trouble getting around. And yet, instead of admitting this simple fact, they have to create a facade. One last lie from the Bush administration.
The fact that commentators focused on the fact of the wheelchair instead of this is alarming.