New tone! Gawker disappointed that Dick Cheney didn't die in 1978

Sarah D. | 12:58 PM on October 17, 2013

When it comes to educated, civil discourse, we don’t expect much from tabloid web rag Gawker, but this is low even by their crappy standards:

Dick Cheney had his first heart attack in 1978. What if he had not survived? http://t.co/w4HkD9sj7p

— Gawker (@Gawker) October 17, 2013

Gawker’s Hamilton Nolan is marking the upcoming release of Cheney’s book, “Heart: An American Medical Odyssey,” by speculating as to how much better off we’d all be if the future vice president had died back in 1978:

By 1978, Cheney had already worked in the White House as Chief of Staff, managed Gerald Ford’s presidential campaign, and formed his early alliance with Donald Rumsfeld. He was running for a Wyoming Congressional seat that year when he had his first heart attack. He survived, and went on to do all of the glorious things with which many unfortunate residents of Planet Earth are familiar.

While Nolan concedes that many important events would have happened whether or not Cheney had been around, he concludes that Cheney was responsible for the Iraq War, and thus:

So let’s say that—conservatively speaking—approximately 300,000 people killed in the Iraq War would be alive today, had Dick Cheney passed away after his first heart attack in 1978.

He didn’t though. His book comes out on Tuesday.

Poor Gawker. So disappointed that Dick Cheney is alive.