After reading this article, it occured to me that Dick Cheney might have a very specific function in the election : that his presence is designed to make people think that, in the world of realpolitik, he is the guy best able to screw the oil producers into lowering gasoline prices. I'm not saying it would actually happen, only that it is a seed being planted meant to germinate in the that part of people's minds where the "doing the right thing" gives way to voting with their pocket book. see also : The Gulf War and Car People.