It seems the White House has reversed roles. Typically the president serves as the foreign diplomat, visiting other country’s leaders to discuss American policy and other world issues. The vice president, on the other hand, is usually the party’s cheerleader — attending fundraisers and campaigning for candidates across the country.

It appears this isn’t the case this year. During the past couple of weeks, President Bush has been spending more time traveling across the country to attend various fundraisers for Republican candidates and is leaving the diplomatic work to Vice President Dick Cheney, who is currently on a tour in the Middle East.

In the months following Sept. 11, President Bush was on the world stage. He was the one making speeches and working with leaders all over the world on the war on terrorism. Cheney, on the other hand, was noticeably absent — supposedly in a secret bunker somewhere, setting up a shadow government in case something drastic happened.

Then the war on terrorism commenced, and the Enron scandal happened. Cheney was forced to come out of the shadows and defend his actions regarding the administration’s policy on energy. He started to be in the news more — making more press appearances and attending public functions again.

Bush was still very much in the news also, most notably coining phrases such as “axis of evil” in his State of the Union address when he lumped Iran, Iraq and North Korea together.

The phrase stirred foreign leaders as they denounced or supported the United States with regard to the administration’s stance. Rumors started to fly more furiously about where America would go next to fight terrorism. Bush said we would get Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and that we were still going to catch Osama bin Laden.

But election season is starting to heat up too, and the loyalty to the Republican Party has not been forgotten. In the past couple of weeks, Bush reiterated his stance on the war on terrorism — to donors at political fundraisers rather than to world leaders.

Bush has been to Minnesota, Florida and both Carolinas to lobby for Republican candidates in what are predicted to be tight races. With the representatives in both the House and Senate being very equal between each party, both sides are lobbying hard to gain control after November.

For instance, just this week Bush repeated the phrase “axis of evil” for the first time in six weeks. Where was he? O’Fallon, Mo., attending a roundtable discussion with small-business owners, with plans to move on to St. Louis to raise $1.5 million for Jim Talent that night.

Cheney, on the other hand, has stepped onto the world stage in an attempt to garner support from Middle Eastern countries regarding possible U.S. actions against Iraq.

UW history professor John M. Cooper Jr. said this reversal of roles is unusual and a terrible idea by the White House. Typically, the president is supposed to be the one getting support from other countries, while the vice president does fundraising.

“Maybe the White House thinks Bush is a better fundraiser than Cheney,” he said. “But I think it’s a lousy idea to have the roles reversed.”

It seems as though the Bush administration is reverting back to what was originally planned for the administration: Bush would set the agenda, and Cheney would execute it. Look at the facts: Bush is at home fundraising for the party and telling his people what to do regarding the war on terrorism. Cheney is in the Middle East working with leaders to make U.S. plans work.

Katie Harbath ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in journalism and political science. She is managing editor of the Badger Herald.