that formula - got us a popular vote LOSS in 2000, and a one state ELECTORAL win in 2004. and we are going into 2008 with alot of baggage.
That formula won an electoral victory (the kind that counts) against an incumbent Vice President in 2000, and in 2004, conservatives held their noses and voted for someone they now knew was a big-government President because of the national security and social conservative issues.
Frankly, after the beating W took all year long in 2004 in the media without ever fighting back, the fact that he won at all is amazing. If he would have fought back tenaciously against the slander of himself and the military, I believe the American people would have supported him and the election wouldn't have been close.