Don't blame Kerry. Kerry was a strong candidate but can't help it if he isn't from a swing state. Bush isn't either by the way. But his brother in Florida gives him the edge there.
Maybe Kerry made a few mistakes. But even those mistakes were debatable and hard to avoid. One thing we did see was him beating GW in all three debates. Gore certainly didn't do that. He lost two out of three. Edwards also beat Cheney per the polls.
As I predicted, it all came down to Ohio. Kerry came a lot closer to winning than the Ohio vote count tells you. Bushies also cheated, though in the end not enough to make a difference, just padding their lead by about 40,000 votes.
Any number of events happening differently could have put JK over the top. For instance, what if there'd been no Florida hurricanes? That alone doomed Kerry in Florida where he had been running even with Bush.
He also found out that when Bush started that war, wrapped himself in the flag and cross and surrounded himself with troops, he insulated himself from many valid criticisms. In places like Ohio, the notion that attacking The Commander in Chief during war-time resonated.
Then came a half dozen phony terrorist alerts and Karl Rove's biggest smear campaign ever, the SwiftVets. Not a single story they told turned out to be true, but it didn't matter. It clouded the water and left lurking doubts. It also neutralized Kerry's greatest strengths; war hero, truth-teller, amazing courageous leader.
The rightwing propaganda drive cleverly tried to morph 9-11 with Saddam with Vietnam and many swingvoters were fooled. Also, Bush's tax break deficits and monster spending were designed to juice the economy until 2004. The real effects will be felt from now on.
BTW: the smearvet attacks will never work again. Just a single use weapon. So as Bush is exposed from now until 2008 as a poor president, Kerry could well win in 2008, assuming he gets nominated. |
