Who's afraid of Richard Cheney?

via Chet, we see that Friedman's gone off his meds again:

When negotiating with murderous regimes like Iran’s or Syria’s, you want Tony Soprano by your side, not Big Bird. Mr. Obama’s gift for outreach would be so much more effective with a Dick Cheney standing over his right shoulder, quietly pounding a baseball bat into his palm.

Okay, what the hell? Dick Cheney is not a scary person. He's a retirement-age grandfather and five-time heart attack patient. Take away the gun rack and the six pack, and I guarantee you I could kick his ass. As could Bashar Assad, and I'd put my money on Kim Jong-il.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama would only have trifling little negotiating chips like "the United States Air Force" and "Trident nuclear missile submarines." But yeah, I'm sure it's Dick Cheney that keeps the lights on in Tehran at night.