Remember Vice President Cheney’s “surprise” trip to Iraq in December? He gave a speech then in a thinly veiled attempt to cheerlead the troops into believing that everything was just fine and they were risking their lives for the right cause.

However, it didn’t work out quite as he intended. He was peppered with rather tough, serious questions in a round-table discussion, and during his speech it was clear he was working a tough room when he got to the sure-fire, killer sound bite designed for maximum network impact:

Star-Telegram | 12/19/2005 | Cheney talks of progress in Iraq

Shouts of “Hooah!” from the audience interrupted Cheney a few times, but mostly the service members listened intently. When he delivered the applause line, “We’re in this fight to win. These colors don’t run,” the only sound was a lone whistle.

Listen… hear that? Crickets?