Jeffrey C. Stewart Professor of Black Studies :
My question is this: why is it that the press continues to give Cheney soft interviews? Why is he allowed to have what are in effect press conferences given that he is no longer vice president? For example, in the Allen and VandeHei interview, it states that "Cheney was asked if he thinks the Bush administration bears any responsibility for the disintegration of Afghanistan because of the attention and resources that were diverted to Iraq. `I basically don’t,' he replied without elaborating."
Why isn't he forced to elaborate? Why is he not forced to account for how he and Bush allowed Bin Laden to escape and how they failed to make Afghanistan untenable for a Taliban takeover? It seems to me that the press is intimidated by Cheney. It ought to stop kowtowing to such an ogre. If he won't give a real factual interview, stop letting him use the mainstream media to slam a sitting president. After all, if Cheney was patriotic and had useful criticisms that were useful to the president, wouldn't he try to communicate them directly and privately, and not embolden our enemies with talk of weakness? If Obama has a weakness problem, help strengthen him. Catcalling from the rafters does nothing more than attempt to weaken him, which is what the press also does by reporting without challenge Cheney's bile.
As for American Exceptionalism, the key to that conception is that America has a special moral mission, one that does not countenance us simply abusing other peoples and nations as other powerful nations have done in the past without reflection on the moral consequences. In that sense, Cheney is an exception to American Exceptionalism, because the only right he recognizes is the right of the stronger.