Given the state of the RATmedia influence on the American electorate today election of a more conservative man than Bush is impossible. You are fantasizing if you believe otherwise. You are overestimating the media, and I think you're giving the sucker moms way too much power. They are overrated.
I'm not fantasizing anything. Look up the demographics of the areas. If Bush gets an anti-gun rep, he can kiss Michigan, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania goodbye just like that. He may win the sucker moms...at the cost of the "union independents" as well as his base.
Only his personality was able to overcome the phobia against conservatives so pervalent in America.
He's a moderate, but had a arch-conservative REPUTATION. His personality was hit and miss as well. Some loved it, others hated it. My rep(Mike Rogers) was much more conservative than Bush, but ran 5% ahead of him because of his personality. Rogers won by 88 votes, and was given a better district by redistricting.
I doubt even one RAT lost his seat because of that ban.
Jack Brooks. Eric Fingerhut. Frank McCloskey. Harris Wolford. Wyche Fowler. Jim Sassar. That's off the top of my head.
BTW - Republicans need to get about 63% in my county to win statewide. A good solid conservative will get 63% with a good campaign. A liberal Republican(pro-abortion) gets 53%. Bush got 60% in 2000.
While the RATmedia's power has declined it is still enormous as witness the slide in Bush's support because of his stand in Iraq. A tremendous military victory has been transformed by the steady drip by drip attacks of the media since the major actions ceased. A few military deaths are being treated as thought this was Wake Island, Iwo Jima and Anzio all rolled into one. And the saps are lapping it up.
Bush will not get an "anti-gun" rep far from it, the VAST majority of Americans (pro and con) believe he is anything but. You vastly overstate the importance of this issue in the states you mentioned and others. Illinoisians downstate we were told would never vote Blagoavitch because he is a MAJOR league gungrabber. False, they voted for him anyway. Union independents are trivial in number they vote RAT just like their bosses tell them. Bush's base is not made up of those who would desert him for signing an AW ban extension. Those were NEVER with him at the beginning anyway they were too busy supporting fringe Losers and dumass third parties.
Bush was the most conservative governor in the nation prior to the election. He was as conservative as ANY state would accept and barely was able to win the presidency.
None of those names lost because of the gun issue. They were all liberals who lost because of a combination of issues not the least of which were scandals and too close association with the Clintons.
Not all who get 65% or over in your county would win statewide in Michigan. Like Illinois Michigan is NOT a conservative state. At best they are moderate states.