Not my first choice, but I voted for her.

[karynnj]

36. Kerry actually ran a far better campaign than Bill Clinton did

In 1992, Bush had a below 40 percent apprival by election time. Not to mention, most of Perot's attacks were on Bush and Perot. GWH was stronger than GHWB and Obama at the end of their terms. He was at 60 percent at the end of 2003.

Kerry did not let the SBVT attacks go unchallanged. In April 2004, the first time they hit, he put his entire Navy record on his Web site, other than his medical records, which he opened briefly to the media. The Republican former Vietnam era Secretary of the Navy, Senator John Warner said Kerry's record was accurate and he was a war hero.

With that record there, Democrats other than Kerry, should have been the ones to attack the liars. Defining yourself as a hero is nowhere near as good as others doing it. One person who deserves special blame is Edwards who told the campaign repeatedly he would, then didn't.

Note the SAME party has spent decades defending Bill Clinton for real trangressions. Yet, they failed to defend a real hero against lies. Not to mention, people like Begala and Carville, top Democrats on TV, actually pushed the Kerry is just anybody but Bush and did almost nothing to help get Kerry's accomplishments out. Partly, I suspect, because they did not want the Kerry/Kennedy wing running the party and thought a big 2008 would be better than beating Bush in 2004 before people saw a Iraq as a mess.

However, it was not the SBVT that made the difference. By November, polling did show that most people knew those accusations were lies. 2004 was lost because too many people were still traumatized by 911 and actually were concerned Kerry might be too moral to do things Cheney and Bush were doing - like torture.

All elections are not the same or equally winnable. 1992, like 2008, was a year any Democrat nominated would win. 2000 and 2016 were not as easy. Even 2012 was a harder job for the incumbent than 2004. Kerry beat all the models that looked at the economy and other variables. Had there been enough voting machines in Ohio, he would have pulled off a huge upset.

As to Gore, he really did win Florida and should have become President. Both ran FAR better campains than HRC.