Well, the Dems had their usual crowded field. It might have been of poorer quality than normal (in terms of stature) since a lot of potential candidates on that side believed the fix was in for Hillary. She was so unappealing that they actually nominated Obama. But that was a coin flip. Coulda gone the other way.
My criticism of the Republicans is that the Bush Administration was sterile, politically-speaking. GWB has done ZERO party building. I guess this is what we get for buying into the "Compassionate-Conservatism" label. I fell for it. At the very least GWB could have asked Cheyney to retire 4 years ago in favor of a runningmate with a political future. Then again, President Bush would have had to 'get political' and he's very reluctant to get his hands dirty.
I might be a little too harsh on President Bush. He's a wartime president. The American public tends to be tough on that type.
Of course sitting VPs only win the presidency if they VPed for a very popular president (twice in the last 130+ years), and even then they only hold one term (both times). So having Cheney step aside probably wouldn’t have done anything for the GOP ticket this year, other than giving us an heir apparent.
Really the crop was always strange. A lot of the usual suspects for the Dems to be sure. And definitely Hillary kept a few out. The GOP side was made up almost entirely of weak candidates with serious problems in the base and not much better in the middle. It’s funny to me to note that historically Senators don’t win the presidency, and this year’s candidate crop was ruled by Senators (all the Dems and most of the Reps), and in some ways explained why Senators don’t win the presidency.