Was George W Bush in 2004 the most hated figure by the opposing party to win

[OSR stands with Israel]

Even Trump this year appealed and in many cases liked by Blue Collar Democrats while Bush in 2004 was fiercely and widely  hated by Democrats across the spectrum and didnt even try to appeal to them and he still won the election.


Like every winner since then was able to appeal to many voters on the other side


FDR- Comparing FDR wins to elections in the Roaring 20s is all that needs to be said

Truman- He was able to win many rural republicans over

Eisenhower- Liked across the spectrum ( both times )

JFK- While didnt get support of any republican group he wasnt hated by all of them

LBJ- Got the support of  moderate Republicans

Nixon- Appealed to Southern Democrats (both times)

Carter- Won many rural republicans over , and religious republicans over

Reagan- Reagan Democrats (both times)

HW Bush- Was able to win many suburban democrats over

Clinton - Won many suburban and young Republicans over, and even many fiscally conservative republicans both times

Bush 2000- Won support of many religious democrats(still were in 2000)

Bush 2004- Hated by every group in the democratic party, won solely as he was as loved by base as hated by opposition and there were more in his base at the time

Obama 2008- won over many anti war republicans

Obama 2012- Ok this is the only one what compares to Bush 2004

Trump 2016- Did well among Blue collar democrats

[OSR stands with Israel]

I think Bush got high marks for his handling of the 9/11 attacks, which led many independents and even some conservative Dems to vote for him in 2004.

He also made slight inroads among Jewish voters. In Oak Park, MI, a heavily Jewish (and Black and Arabic) Detroit suburb, Bush's share of the vote jumped from 14% in 2000 to 20% in 2004.

Wasnt Bush approval down to like 49% in 2004 so he no longer was very popular in 2004. Look at the states Bush won too


Trump in 2016, Bush in 2000, and Obama in 2008 all appealed to states which were considered likely dem /gop to their side to win(WI,MI,PA for Trump; WV, TN, AK for Bush; and VA , IN , NC for Obama) .

Bush in 2004 won by holding almost all his states from 2000(which was extremely close to begin with) and flipping basically very close states . All the states Dems won by .5% became much more democratic in that election.

[OSR stands with Israel]

John Kerry was a pretty uninspiring candidate, and Bush's approval was in the 40% range, I believe, which is enough to win especially given the lack of enthusiasm on the other side.

That is not even close to being true , Kerry received 9 million more votes then Al Gore did .Also  if you look at the all time popular vote count after 2004 Kerry was number two all time behind George W Bush in 2004 , both who easily smashed the previous record . Lastly voter turnout % in 2004 was the highest it had been since 1968. It may not have been cause of Kerry, and more cause of anti Bush sentiment what drove dem turnout but thats exactly the point, because if dems could turnout so heavily for such an uninspiring candidate that shows you how much they despised Bush.

[OSR stands with Israel]

It was Lincoln.

ok in the past 100 years then

[OSR stands with Israel]

Sure, within the past 44 years yes (I am not including Trump '16 in the mix for obvious reasons).

I would certainly be prepared to make a strong argument that Nixon in '72 was more hated by what was left or Left of the Democratic Party at that time than W. in '04.

Hell, even Reagan, although he was extremely unpopular among Democrats in '80/'84 was not "hated".

Bush Sr was extremely unpopular in '92, among Dems, but shoot Bill Clinton only won a narrow plurality of the PV and was not popular within his own Party, although Bush Sr was certainly "hated" among elements of the Dem base for various reasons.

I can only speak from my own personal perspective, but after losing my friend Eric in Iraq, I did go through a period of "hatred" towards W. because of the lies and deceit that caused my friend to die.

Obviously this was over 10 years ago, and although I no longer "hate" anyone involved, I still think there are people that served at Senior levels of the W. Administration that need to serve hard time in a Federal Prison for intentionally lying and deceiving the American people about not only the causus belli, but also the many lies and deceptions afterwards.

Well if you look at DU threads from 2004 everything they said about Trump now they said about Bush then and maybe even worse. Also Bush unlike Trump was hated by the entire democratic party while trump was able to win blue collar dems over.

[OSR stands with Israel]

If people think the left hated Trump, they should look at a Bush thread on DU from 2004-2008, or TYT from 06-08 as everything they said about Trump they said about Bush and worse.


What make 2004 so stunning in is that Bush in 04 campaign didnt even run a reach out to parts of the other side campaign (like even trump did with blue collar dems in 2016)  and he still won. 2004 if you look at the results was probably just as divisive a 16 as Bush won the popular vote by 3 million votes , and if Kerry was able to flip 100k votes in Ohio he wins despite losing the popular vote by a worse margin then Trump did.

Imagine how divisive 2004 would have been if social media was as big then as now.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Oh yes. George W. Bush was detested by Democrats, Trump isn't even comparable. A lot of Democrats can find points of commonality with Trump like the Syria thing. With Bush? No way. Don't forget Bush launched the Iraq war which has been the defining issue for Democrats for a decade and a half. The war is what made Bush so hated. Recently I've been thinking the Iraq war was even worse than I'd imagined; it may have been the death knell of Western civilization, which I didn't even consider at the time. Heck, I know it doesn't seem this way now, but if Trump doesn't start a major war, words won't be able to express my gratitude.

Even on immigration I believe most Dems opposed him ,because they opposed H1B visas at the time as nothing but visas that benefit corporations.

People also forget Bush also tried to partially privatize social security which I believe was the moment his presidency started to unwind .

[OSR stands with Israel]

Oh yes. George W. Bush was detested by Democrats, Trump isn't even comparable. A lot of Democrats can find points of commonality with Trump like the Syria thing. With Bush? No way. Don't forget Bush launched the Iraq war which has been the defining issue for Democrats for a decade and a half. The war is what made Bush so hated. Recently I've been thinking the Iraq war was even worse than I'd imagined; it may have been the death knell of Western civilization, which I didn't even consider at the time. Heck, I know it doesn't seem this way now, but if Trump doesn't start a major war, words won't be able to express my gratitude.

Even on immigration I believe most Dems opposed him ,because they opposed H1B visas at the time as nothing but visas that benefit corporations.

People also forget Bush also tried to partially privatize social security which I believe was the moment his presidency started to unwind .

Exactly. Plus Bush was too close to Christian conservatives. It's ironic because Trump may deliver more for Christian conservatives than Bush ever did, but because he's not politically close to them formally the Democrats don't hate him as much.

Bush got partial abortions banned federally, and at the time seemed to have effectively banned gay marriage(with all those propositions banning gay marriage) . The country is way more socially liberal now for Trump to deliver more for Christian conservatives than Bush did .

[OSR stands with Israel]

Oh yes. George W. Bush was detested by Democrats, Trump isn't even comparable. A lot of Democrats can find points of commonality with Trump like the Syria thing. With Bush? No way. Don't forget Bush launched the Iraq war which has been the defining issue for Democrats for a decade and a half. The war is what made Bush so hated. Recently I've been thinking the Iraq war was even worse than I'd imagined; it may have been the death knell of Western civilization, which I didn't even consider at the time. Heck, I know it doesn't seem this way now, but if Trump doesn't start a major war, words won't be able to express my gratitude.

Even on immigration I believe most Dems opposed him ,because they opposed H1B visas at the time as nothing but visas that benefit corporations.

People also forget Bush also tried to partially privatize social security which I believe was the moment his presidency started to unwind .

Exactly. Plus Bush was too close to Christian conservatives. It's ironic because Trump may deliver more for Christian conservatives than Bush ever did, but because he's not politically close to them formally the Democrats don't hate him as much.

Bush got partial abortions banned federally, and at the time seemed to have effectively banned gay marriage(with all those propositions banning gay marriage) . The country is way more socially liberal now for Trump to deliver more for Christian conservatives than Bush did .

Trump could get a conservative majority on the Court, which would not only jeopardize Roe, but would impact everything from the death penalty to queer rights to free speech to drug reform to separation of church and state to assisted suicide... pretty much every social issue will shift hard right. It doesn't matter what the country's public opinion is because there is no popular vote, and a hard right Court majority endures for generations.

Thats true though thats only cause  Bush  never had that chance to remake the court that way.