A McCain/Kerry ticket in the middle of the Iraq war, both of them veterans, running against the AWOL Bush and chicken hawk Cheney, was formidable. They were polling 14 points ahead of Bush in ‘04.
Rove made a deal with McCain to loan him the Bushbots Nicolle Wallace, Mark Wallace and Steve Schmidt if he would not run with Kerry in 04, but rather, wait until 08.
Sure ‘nuff — McCain called Schmidt the night after the ‘06 mid terms to start his ‘08 campaign.
Their policies in office would have been exactly the same as Bush’s.