What if Dick Cheney had been the GOP nominee for President in '08?

He'd have lost, but wouldn't the loss have been better for the GOP? It's Ross Douthat's first NYT column:

As a candidate, Cheney would have doubtless been as disciplined and ideologically consistent as McCain was feckless. In debates with Barack Obama, he would have been as cuttingly effective as he was in his encounters with Joe Lieberman and John Edwards in 2000 and 2004 respectively. And when he went down to a landslide loss, the conservative movement might – might! – have been jolted into the kind of rethinking that’s necessary if it hopes to regain power....

And — the Douthat theory goes — we wouldn't be stuck listening to Dick Cheney now.