o those of us yet unpersuaded of the leadership qualities of George ''Dubbaya'' Bush, his selection of Dick Cheney as running mate is a big plus, if you happen to know Cheney.
And Washington knows Dick Cheney. As former chief of staff to President Ford in the '70s, as a Wyoming congressman for a decade, and as defense secretary to President Bush the Elder, Cheney is a man of character and competence and now of consequence.
Whatever else the Texas governor does in this campaign, he has already surpassed his father in plucking a running mate from the GOP political tree. Twelve years ago this summer, Bush the First ransacked the census lists for the person most qualified, in his mind, to take over the presidency, and came up with: Dan Quayle.
That baffling selection probably should have prepared us for Bush Sr.'s equally baffling late declaration that when it came to filling a Supreme Court vacancy, Clarence Thomas was the finest legal mind in America at that particular moment. I doubt even Thomas thought that.
But Cheney, while little-known to average voters, is a far superior choice, and Bush the Younger will get points from the inside-the-Beltway crowd for tapping a man with obvious qualifications. The selection of the man he'd initially charged with shuffling the resumes of all the potential running mates suggests Cheney wore well through the bureaucratic paper-shuffling.
That's important because a lot of what the VP does is sit around chewing the fat with the prez and the chief of staff as they try to figure out ''what the hell are we going to do about such-and-such?'' And that always leads to calls to have more paper sent in, and more shuffling, and more fat-chewing.
Cheney did all that for Gerry Ford, an underrated president and one of many presidents (Truman, Johnson, Nixon, Bush the First) who came out of the VP broom closet and took over the big desk. As the Globe's White House correspondent when Cheney ran the staff for Ford, I saw the pair make the best of a tumultuous succession after the Nixon debacle. They lost the next election, but there was no question Ford handed over the keys to a country in far better shape than when he'd hurriedly taken over.
And Cheney was a big part of that. He is one of the grownups, and his choice is reassuring because Young Bush has not stilled doubts in some sectors that he is a little callow, a bit goofy, not quite ready to sit at the big people's table.
There is also the possibility - devoutly to be wished - that Cheney's designation will yank the campaign up to a higher level than the quadrennial autumnal trashing that came into fashion with the Bush-Dukakis campaign of '88. That year, Bush Jr. sat at the knee of the late Lee Atwater, the dreaded dark angel of negative campaigning, as the Bush camp savaged Dukakis as unpatriotic and unworthy.
Running mates have to carry not only water for their patrons, but typically they carry mud as well. But Cheney will not be a willing dupe for the Republican slash-and-burn boys. And if Al Gore picks a running mate of matching qualities, there's perhaps a chance we'll escape the rubbish bin.
Cheney survived a vetting process he was supposedly running himself. George W. couldn't get Colin Powell, and he couldn't stand John McCain. The wounds opened by Bush's trashing of McCain in South Carolina and some other early primary states left McCain with a personal beef against Bush. And regardless of the large number of GOP congressmen yearning to have McCain and his magic on the ticket this November, Bush fears the Arizonan because he cannot dominate him.
Cheney's negatives? He only brings Wyoming's paltry three electoral votes, which Bush had anyway. Cheney has suffered three mild heart attacks in the '80s, and health concerns are always magnified in national campaigns. Cheney is not a fire-breather on the stump. Balding, tending to portly, calm and unruffled, he looks the career middle manager, exuding quiet competence. He is the antithesis of flash-and-dash. Or gash. He'll not be a willing accomplice in any kind of gutter campaign.
And he's from the oil industry, having cashed in $5 million in options on rising oil prices. If gasoline prices stay high or average $2 a gallon by election day, the Democrats will slap the Big Oil tag on Bush, himself a creature of the oil industry, and his running mate. That should neutralize the blame for high energy costs that Republicans will try to hang on Clinton-Gore, so that issue is probably a wash in the end.
Old Yankee clipper ship skippers preferred vessels that had ''bottom,'' the ability to ride out a hard blow. ''Bottom'' is what some of us worry about in George Dubbaya. He's been a kid of privilege who surfed easily through life and school and the Air Force Reserve and his Texas ''bidness,'' largely on family connections. If his first big decision is Dick Cheney, that's a good sign, at least, that at least he knows ''bottom'' when he sees it. And Cheney's mettle may cause outsiders to think of this as the Kangaroo Ticket, where the hind legs are a lot stronger than the front.
David Nyhan is a Globe columnist.
