Isn't that what they said about his Dad? He'll still be a powerful figure in the party, his brother is always a threat to run, and agian, people said no more of Bush back in '92, so don't think people won't forget again. McCain needs Bush's party machine, his connections, his loyalists. The 30-something percent who still support Bush are the same 30-something percent that still supported Nixon days before he resigned. Their mirror image exists on the Democrats' side. Candidates have to run to the right/left and pander to this 30% for the primaries, then run to the middle as fast as they can as soon as they lock up the nomination.
Heck, even Philis Schlafley (sic but I could care less) has a permanent seat at the Republican convention. Once you are in, it's hard to become totally irrelavent, heck, Newt is considering a run!
Short on topic point: Should have never been given the green light in the first place, but once it was, we shouldn't have reversed the deal. Total disaster, we look like total xenophobes now.