No it was pretty much that Bush was unappealing to Democrats and Independents by 04.
On the morning of Election Day, 2004, I was convinced that John Kerry would win -- until I flipped through some channels and found some televangelist who, at the end of his program, announced that Christians have the obligation to vote in the election of the day as if their salvation depended upon it. That sort of message surely had been echoing through Fundamentalist churches two days earlier -- vote for George W. Bush and the GOP, candidates that God Almighty wanted to win. The Religious Right was then at or near its peak in political influence, and many Christian Fundamentalists could be expected to vote against their economic interests on behalf of people who showed support for plutocracy, school prayer, devotional readings in school, and an abortion ban.
Of course, Kerry didn't get enough support from independent voters (who almost invariably make the difference).
Stop making excuses. Kerry lost because the majority of Americans viewed him as inferior to Bush. When 2012 rolls around, Obama and the 2012 Republican nominee will face the exact same scenario - is the incumbent inferior or superior to the nominee? Oh, and the entire thesis of this thread is ridiculous.
