Was Kerry the most electable candidate in '04 after all?

[anvi]

If Gephardt could have gotten the nomination, I think he would have stood the best chance on the electoral map; he would have taken Kerry's states plus Iowa and Missouri, and that would have brought the electoral count to 269 Gephardt 268 Bush, so Gephardt would have to have pulled in one more state, maybe Nevada or New Mexico, both of which Kerry barely lost.  But, I have to say that, Gephardt having been eliminated, I had wished that Dean would have been nominated.  He may have lost to Bush too, but the election would at least have been about something important, namely the war, and the nation desperately needed that debate at that point.  I'm sorry to say that Kerry was a lame candidate.  He is a very compelling person, no doubt, but he was completely incapable of making any emotional connection to the voters, and if you don't have that, you can't win.