Other Crap

"Cheney needs to step aside for good of Bush, party". Forget for a minute whether you approve of the President or not and try to put yourself in the President's shoes. If you were the Prez, would you eliminate Cheney BEFORE the election? Hell, no. You run the risk of exposing some unknown to the rigorous scrutiny of the election process. Every newspaper and every Democrat in the country will be digging up everything the new guy has done since he was toilet trained. The only way to avoid that would be to choose McCain or Powell, choices which I presume the President would avoid to assure spiritual continuity after his second term. Cheney, on the other hand, is felt to be a known commodity and a stable leader. Whatever dirt there is on him has already been dug up. Furthermore, the President ran with hardliner Cheney when Dubya himself was considered a moderate Republican like his dad. Now that the President is considered an extreme Christian conservative, he would (presumably) have to choose a respected moderate, like McCain for example, to balance the ticket. That means that the neo-con revolution would probably end with Dubya. If I were Dubya, I would run with Cheney, with the understanding that Cheney would resign "for health reasons" sometime after the election. That would allow the President to by-pass the electoral process, avoid the McCains of the world, and nominate his true spiritual heir to the Vice-Presidency, subject only to a simple majority approval in both houses of Congress.

• Note: I'm not saying I approve of that process, but it is perfectly legal, good strategy, and is what I might do in the President's position.
• Exception: ignore the above if the President simply thinks he will lose unless he chooses McCain or Powell. In that case, he will simply have to do what he has to do to win. A Bush/McCain ticket would be very strong, and would conduct a fairly clean campaign, not just because McCain and Kerry are friends, but because McCain is an ethical man and would insist on it. In my opinion, choosing McCain as a running mate would lift the President's stature both in reality and in perception. But I don't think he would do it unless he thought there was no other way to win.