OK, I'm looking at how the 2008 Presidential Election -- primaries to general -- might play out in the following TL:
2001 -- PoD where rote information concerning the upcoming attacks is passed on, allowing the FBI to make some fairly last minute arrests, preventing the 9/11 attacks; however, not all the conspirators are apprehended...
2002 -- w/ no 9/11, the Republicans lose (fairly few seats) in the House and Senate, leading to a Democratic Congress
2004 -- w/ no Iraq War and a fairly good economy (better than OTL), Bush wins re-election (by slightly wider margins than OTL)
2001-05 -- Al Qaeda, still with its mostly unmolested safe haven in Afghanistan, plans and coordinates an even bolder operation, starting with the acquisition of nuclear material...
2006 -- In September, while President Bush is at an event in the area, an AQ agent detonates a suitcase dirty bomb in Manhattan; casualties are in the thousands, among them, the President
later 2006 -- Dick Cheney is sworn in as President; in seeking as much "deference" in the short term as possible, as a gesture to Congressional Democrats he announces that he "will not seek, nor accept" to be elected in his own right in 2008. He also promises that whoever is appointed Vice-President in his place will be similarly pledged.
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Now, obviously the emergence of the Cheney Presidency described above (as well as the preceding alternate Bush Administration) would have a part to play in the main concern of this thread -- the 2008 election -- but I think we can make some good guesses without going into too much detail.
For example, John McCain, coming from a somewhat neoconservative tradition, seems like the natural choice for Republicans in this election. Similarly, I'd think the Democratic hawks are likely to do better in TTL's 2008; I'd say that makes Hillary an even more natural frontrunner.
Any thoughts?