If that happens, Bush will have to choose with great care. Someone who is soft-spoken and uncontroversial, but not another Harry Blackman or David Souter in waiting. And there are ways to check up that didn’t exist back in those days.
Bush might be able to coax some dems by picking an older nominee, perhaps someone in their low- to mid-60s. Someone conservative, older, but not controversial, as you say.