Mrs. Cheney Recalls Life in Less Cynical Era

After 40 years of campaigning and politics, Lynne and Dick Cheney are a D.C. power couple. A couple who got their start as high school sweethearts, back in Casper, Wyoming. "It was a great and free time to grow up," Cheney said. "Kids felt felt safe most places. Parents felt safe about letting them play kick the can after dark outside." She, the state champion baton twirler and homecoming queen -- he, the captain of the football team and future vice president of the United States. In her new memoir, Blue Skies No Fences, Cheney recounts growing up in the post-war 50's, a nostalgic, less cynical era. "I think there was the kind of family structure whereby we could all sit down and watch television together," she said. "You could sing popular songs together which you can't right now." The girl from Casper would become a culture warrior, targeting the music industry for explicit song lyrics. "What is the thing we learn as a child, money is the root of all evil? It's a very lucrative enterprise. And you're threatening people where they live and where they earn so to speak when you suggest that maybe social responsibility ought to be part of our lives," Cheney said. Cheney won't publicly endorse a presidential candidate, despite the fact her research turned up an ancestral link between her husband and Democratic contender Barack Obama. A descendent of Mormon pioneers, Cheney has spoken out against negative press reports of Republican Mitt Romney and his Mormon faith. "I think it's something I'd almost call religious illiteracy," she said. "These aren't talking points for a doctrinal dissertation.This is someone's beliefs. And you don't hold those up and say, 'Oh my gosh, you believe that?' You could do it to anyone's faith? You could to Christians, to a Methodist like me. 'Do you really believe in Jonah and the whale?' That's just not the right way to approach religion," she said. She's also a staunch defender of the vice president, who's been a lighting rod for the administration's war policy. But during her book tour, Cheney made light of the running joke about her husband's alter ego. CHENEY: It's a special present for you. It's an old family heirloom (presenting Darth Vader) JON STEWART: Does it have a microphone in it? (laughter) "Dick is basically just a really good guy. But he is a serious person, and he is a very strong person and he's absolutely determined to keep this nation safe and secure," Cheney said of her husband. Cheney agrees with her husband that pre-mature withdrawal from Iraq would be a tragedy. She says media coverage is a stark contrast from her how her hometown paper covered the Korean War during her youth. "That kind of positive coverage of the war, is something that I don't think we've seen as much of in Iraq. So I think Dick's point is just to get the other side out, get the other voice out," she said. As she and the vice president enter their last year of their term, Cheney looks toward next year's presidential election as a critical turning point for the future of the nation.