No, no, no. Dick Cheney forbade me to waste time on his image. I would have liked to have done more.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Did I say that the President's entire job is image management? Of course not.
No, I never thought about my image. It interests me that there are people who do, that they seem to be methodical about it.
I refused to conform to an image that a lot of people thought a president's brother should adopt.
Pictures can be devastating. Who allowed John Kerry to get himself photographed windsurfing in a flowered swimsuit? Anyone in the real world in that operation?
I'm not questioning Dick Cheney's motives. There's a chance for a conflict of interest. At one point in time, he was opposed to going into Baghdad. Then he was out of office and involved in the defense industry, and then he became for going into Baghdad.
I'd always maintained an image so that people wouldn't approach me.
The funny thing is that Dick Cheney has done more than anybody in the White House for quite a long time to throw up roadblocks against future historians.
Then, all of a sudden, here I am in the Press Room in the White House and walking in with the guards, who handed me three little pieces of paper asking me to send pictures to the guards at the White House.
I'm not someone who likes to have my picture taken, let alone see it plastered all over the place.
There's no doubt that usually a president's public image is enhanced by going to war. That never did appeal to me.