I would say trhat the Bush administration’s failure to take on the MSM and their Democrat talking points on Iraq and the WMDs coupled with the failure of the Bush administration to adequately plan for a successor, along with the public perception to “make history” did the trick.
Cheney should have stepped down mid-way through the second term so that new face could have been selected and given a degree of experience to prepare for the 2008 election.
However, seeing how that administration functioned, they would probably have picked a compromise, RINO candidate to “appeal to everyone” and still have lost!
From what little I have heard of Rove’s book, he makes the same point you do in your first comment. There seemed to be a level of frustration on the part of rove when they didn’t fight back...
You hit the nail on the head. Bush’s loyalty (like his father’s with Dan Quayle) were laudable, but not politically helpful.
“...they would probably have picked a compromise, RINO candidate to “appeal to everyone” and still have lost!”
Well, think about this - if Cheney had stepped down and been replaced by McLame, and then McLame lost (as he did), he would no longer be the fnn Rino in the Senate that he is.