"I've got my plans laid out," Cheney said Sunday. "I'm going to serve this president for the next four years and then I'm out of here."

Cheney said he made it clear when he became George W. Bush's running mate that he would never run for president and nothing could change his mind.

Cheney tried to put the question to rest in the starkest terms possible. "Not only no, but hell no," Cheney told "Fox News Sunday." He quoted Civil War Gen. William Sherman, who answered similar queries in 1884 by saying, "If nominated, I will not run. If elected, I will not serve."

"By 2009, I'll be 68 years old," Cheney said. "And I've still got a lot of rivers I'd like to fish and time I'd like to spend with my grandkids, and so this is my last tour."