Conservative MSNBC host Joe Scarborough on Thursday suggested that President Barack Obama (D) was still not prepared to lead, and he was "not ashamed to say I love Dick Cheney."
During a discussion about how Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY), Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) were part of a "youth movement" in the Republican Party, Scarborough asserted that Obama "still doesn't know how to run the office" after six years.
"For the same reason you wouldn't want me running the chemistry lab at Princeton: because I didn't do it," the MSNBC host opined. "Actually knowing how things work, understanding the calls to make. You look at how Lyndon Johnson did it, you look at how FDR did it, you look at how Ronald Reagan did it."
"I'm talking about Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, are they leaders?" co-host Mika Brzezinski exclaimed.
"It's the same exact thing," Scarborough replied. "Barack Obama was only in for about two minutes before he decided he was bored with the Senate and wanted to be president. He came in ill-equipped to be the leader of Washington, D.C."
"Barack Obama, as a fluke of history, became president of the United States," he continued. "Now, everybody thinks they can get sworn into the Senate and start running for president. It's dangerous."
"You keep making this about this president!" Brzezinski shot back.
"So, why don't we have Rick Perry or Gov. Romney if governors make a better president?" MSNBC host Thomas Roberts wondered.
"I always go back to George W. Bush," Scarborough explained. "Go back and look at what George W. Bush did. When 80 percent of Americans and probably 95 percent of people in the House were against the surge in Iraq, you know what George Bush said? We're going to do a surge in Iraq. And guess what? He got it through. He pushed it through. He brow beat 'em."
"Do you think it was his relationship or Cheney's?" Roberts wondered.
"I think Cheney said things to members of the United States Senate that did not help his relationship," Scarborough smiled. "What did he say to Leahy? Go what yourself? I love that guy. I'm not ashamed to say I love Dick Cheney."
