could anyone have beaten Bush in '04?

[Reignman]

Edwards.

[jimrtex]

If he had really tried that hard to cultivate a faux image, he would have known what a grocery store checkout scanner was, even if he never used them.

Never happened

Ann McFeatters, who covered the White House for Scripps Howard News Service, to her great credit was one of the few who got it right and even followed up with a disturbing report of her own on how things got shamelessly out of hand.

On Feb. 25, 1992, her report appeared on the Outlook page:

" . . . A few reporters traveling with Bush and reading the pool report back in the filing center decided they had a good example of Bush being out of touch with the average American.

"One of them asked McDonald, the Houston reporter, if it would be a cheap shot to write a story indicating that Bush is not at home in a modern grocery store. McDonald, the only newspaper reporter who witnessed the event personally, said it would be unfair. Besides, nobody had ascertained from Bush the exact source of his amazement and whether he was truly unfamiliar with scanners.

"However, a reporter for The New York Times wrote a story that ended up on Page One with the headline: `Bush encounters the supermarket, amazed.'

[Tetro Kornbluth]

I imagine that anyone who had slightly more charisma (not hard) than Kerry or at least seemed more on touch on the issues could have beaten Bush.

Kerry's own bland wishy-washiness was his downfall imo.

[ShadowRocket]

While he didn't even run, I think Evan Bayh could've defeated Bush in 2004. A two-term Governor and then one-term Senator from the Midwest would've had broader appeal than a four-term Senator from the Northeast, IMO.

[JSojourner]

Edwards definitely would have. Clark probably as well, or pretty much any moderate Governor or Senator likely would've (or even the liberal ones, if they had run a better campaign than Kerry did).

Edwards was/is an empty suit. 

The empty business suit could never have overcome the empty flight suit.

And we are reaping the results now.

[© tweed]

Edwards would have had a shot, although he probably still would have lost by about 1/3 of the margin Kerry did.  Kerry might have won had he not talked about Vietnam for an hour at the convention.  And a Gore re-run might have had a better shot than Kerry but he'd likely still have lost by a small amount.

[Stranger in a strange land]

I think Edwards would have won. His handsome face, cute kids, and southern accent would have neutralized some of Bush's biggest advantages.

Clark might have also.

Even Kerry could have won if he'd run a half-way decent campaign.

Al Gore would probably have won had he run again, that is IF his supporters hadn't gotten bogged down in obsessing over the results of the 2000 election.

[Hitchabrut]

Kerry/Gephardt. Damn, I was relieved when I found out the truth about that headline.

[adam]

I think that Wes Clark and Dick Gephardt could have beaten Bush. Edwards would have made it more interesting, it's hard to tell whether he would have won or not.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Yes, Kerry blew it by thinking that a positive campaign wins in America.