Ramesh, if 2003 taught us anything, it’s that predicting presidential nominees four or five years in advance is a fool’s game. Or at least in predicting Democrat nominees. On the Republican side, it’s a little more predictable, which as a fan of underdogs (the Milwaukee Brewers, for example), I tend to resent. Four years ago, I really felt the Bush family had done enough for the GOP and the Clintons, thank you. But if they do this again with Jeb, Chuck Hagel ought to be a welcome sight for the Bushies. John McCain’s maddening and completely media-inflated campaign is what drove me to the polls for Dubya. Hagel could also have that unifying stop-the-media’s-favorite-Republican effect.