Even if they did, there must of been speculation about who could run. It just seems like the Democratic party right now has a decent pipeline of fresh talent that will keep the party going wheras the Republican party is really suffering from a dearth of prospective presidential figures.
I expect the next Republican presidential nominees to be significantly stronger than the last bunch. I can’t imagine them being worse than Romney, Giuliani, Huckabee and Thompson. Jindal and Pawlenty would be much stronger candidates than McCain/Palin were. Jindal isn’t widely known yet, so I guess you could say he will “come out of nowhere” and secure the nomination. I expect a close Obama vs. Jindal election in 2012.