“And a Cheney-for-President campaign would have been an instructive test of its political viability.”
Dick Cheney running for President would have been Obama’s and his minions in the medias worst nightmare.
That’s why they selected McCain to run as the sacrificial RINO.
Douthat went to Harvard, and you didn’t so what do YOU know about politics?
/s
Here is reality. The GOP primary voters chose McCain over a half dozen more conservative candidates. Conservatives hate McCain and conservatives failed to beat him. Cheney would have been beaten by a vastly wider margin than McCain.