Prince of Darkness '08

oh please oh please oh please let this be true:

Aspen - Renowned journalist Bob Woodward predicts Dick Cheney will be the Republican Party's presidential nominee in 2008 and that the vice president could face Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton in a dramatic partisan showdown.

Speaking in the Paepcke Auditorium as part of the Aspen Institute's McCloskey Speaker Series, Woodward on Tuesday listed a number of reasons it is "highly likely" President Bush might implore Cheney to seek the Oval Office.

"He would be 67 if he ran and was elected. Reagan was 69. Republicans always like the old warhorse. ... Nixon was 68," said Woodward, best known for exposing the Watergate scandal that led to Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974. "Both parties like to nominate vice presidents. ... Cheney would do it, and I think it's highly likely, so stay tuned."

If anybody knows what's going on in DC, it's Woodward. So this has a lot of merit, IMO.

I'm guessing Novak would be the Veep.

Cheney would be as much a misstep for the Right as Dean in '08 would be for the Left, and for the same reason: they have a pre-sold narrative. Right or wrong, people think of Dean as something of a crazy Bush-hater, and people think of Cheney as Satan incarnate. Bush has been elected by razor-thin margins (in one case a negative margin) in part on his personality. Cheney eats personalities for breakfast.

This wouldn't work. But I'd love to see them try.