Kerry almost won the election
Plankton5165:
How?
Did he actually deserve that many electoral votes or did the voters just decide to make sure both parties were close?
Gore almost won in 2000, but, so did Kerry. Kerry was the second closest person to becoming President by electoral vote in 88 years!
All Along The Watchtower:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_insurgency_(2003%E2%80%932011)
Skill and Chance:
It is surprising to me how close 2004 was. A "wartime" incumbent probably should have won by double digits by 20th century standards.
dw93:
The economic recovery from the "dotcom" recession was weak, thus Bush only narrowly winning Ohio and losing Wisconsin. It also became clear that there were no WMDs in Iraq by the time of the election, which likely had an impact on the closeness of the election. Bush also, in contrast to his 2000 campaign, ran a weak, grievance ridden campaign in 2004 while Kerry ran a decent campaign.
President Johnson:
Is this my personal impression that's just wrong, or has the conversation around 2004 really shifted within "political circles" over the last few years?
I feel like 2004 was often seen as a missed opportunity and race that Kerry blew by appearing too technocratic and allowing the Bush campaign to be defined as out-of-touch elitist too liberal for Middle America and weak on national security. Or was that just a perception by liberals who always saw W. Bush as a failed president?
There's also a critical article on Kerry from right after the election that says he blew it: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2004/11/why-kerry-lost.html
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