Vice-President Cheney got attention last weekend with his answer to ABC news reporter Martha Raddatz. She pointed out that the majority of Americans thought the Iraq war was not worth it. Cheney’s response: “So?”

This is a classic dilemma for democratic government. We do not want leaders who blindly follow public opinion polls, especially when the issues are complicated and understanding may be limited. Nor do we want leaders who simply ignore the wishes of the electorate.

The Vice President elaborated. “I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls,” he added in an interview in Oman with ABC News. “There has in fact been fundamental change and transformation and improvement for the better.”

The USA Today’s Gallup Guru, Frank Newport, does a nice job of capturing the issue. He summarizes the USA editorial on the subject and his own views as follows:

USA Today – referencing these statements — editorializes that “….the administration owes Americans more than that. Not just to be polite, but to sustain public and congressional backing for the further sacrifices needed to leave behind a stable, self-governing Iraq.” And “If the vice president thinks it’s vital to U.S. security to stay the course there, he needs to mold public opinion, not be contemptuous of it.”

USA Today’s editorial writers are certainly on target here. There is, of course, a significant debate about what the exact role of public opinion should be in a representative democracy. My own views (read the book) are that elected leaders should pay close attention to the powerfully important collective wisdom in the aggregated views of the people of the United States.

Questions for the current candidates might well include something about leadership style, although the topic is difficult to approach. Readers might remember when President Bush was asked to talk about his biggest mistake and could not seem to remember one.