President Bush gave his embattled vice president a vote of confidence yesterday. Mr. Bush told reporters at the White House who asked about Mr. Cheney’s hunting accident and his handling of the public explanation of the event, “I thought the vice president handled the issue just fine.”

The hunting accident, coming after the indictment of Mr. Cheney’s chief of staff for allegedly lying to federal investigators looking into the leak of the identity of a CIA employee, has prompted some speculation that Mr. Cheney will be replaced. The inestimable Peggy Noonan had a column in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal to that effect. The argument goes that Mr. Bush might give a 2008 Republican presidential contender a lift by elevating him to the vice presidency.

In our view Mr. Cheney has done on the substance just a terrific job as vice president and deserves Mr. Bush’s – and America’s – gratitude, rather than a shove out the door. As for the politics, these attempts to override the primary or electoral process by handpicking a successor don’t tend to go over very well. Gerald Ford wasn’t re-elected and Vice President Gore never became President Gore. Mr. Bush will have done just fine if he hands over to his party in 2008 not a handpicked successor but simply the security and prosperity to which Mr. Cheney has contributed so much.