Cheney tipped to join Bush ticket

Dick Cheney emerged yesterday as the leading candidate to complete the Republican presidential ticket alongside George W Bush, although aides to Mr Bush insisted he had made no final decision. An announcement by the Texas governor is expected imminently, however - perhaps as early as tomorrow.

Dick Cheney emerged yesterday as the leading candidate to complete the Republican presidential ticket alongside George W Bush, although aides to Mr Bush insisted he had made no final decision. An announcement by the Texas governor is expected imminently, however - perhaps as early as tomorrow.

Mr Cheney, 59, who served as US Defense Secretary for the elder George Bush and was one of the architects of the Gulf War campaign, has been heading the search for a Republican vice-presidential candidate. But few had foreseen that he would emerge as a likely contender himself.

Speculation switched to Mr Cheney when he was discovered on Friday switching his voter registration from Texas, where he lives, to his native state of Wyoming, which he represented for years in Congress. Under the US constitution, a party cannot pick a presidential and vice-presidential candidate from the same state.

Given his depth of experience, Mr Cheney would bring gravitas to the Republican team, although he is lacking in charisma. Nor would he give Mr Bush what a number two normally offers - a sure win on polling day in a voter-rich state.

Sceptics wondered whether strategists were floating Cheney to shift attention away from John McCain, the Arizona senator who ran strongly against Mr Bush in the primaries. While many in the party would like to see McCain on the ticket, Mr Bush is understood to be highly resistant. Other possibilities include Governors George Pataki of New York and Frank Keating of Oklahoma.