Voting has just begun, but it’s never too early to start the post mortems. Someone is going to lose today, so both candidates campaigns will be examined for critical errors that may have lead to their defeat. See the Why Kerry Lost post if you want to examine the flip-side of the issue.
For the purposes of this post you are to assume that Senator Kerry wins a clear victory of a few percentage points in the popular vote and and a clear Electoral College victory. Why did President Bush fail to win?
More thoughts from me forthcoming…
Bush did not communicate to the American people what needed to be communicated about Iraq. He should have given the people biweekly updates on the tremendous progress we made in Iraq.
Failure to communicate is a major flaw in Bush
lose, not loose…
Bush lost because he is an idiot. The average american doesn’t want a court jester as their leader. He is patronizing, vague, and a b.s. artist-and they have sacrificed the lives of their sons and daughters over it.
Bush lost because the MSM failed to tell the truth. As the Democratic propaganda machine, they failed to take a hard look at Kerry, while they were hypercritical of every Bush move, trait, or effort to protect our country.
Most people who vote for Kerry will do so because they make the critical mistake of listening to his rhetoric instead of watching his actions.
Because Evans was conservative in his 15 point estimation. It was more like 20.
Bush lost this election for one reason and one reason alone. His decision to put the country ahead of his political fortunes by invading Iraq. At the time Bush began to focus on Iraq, he was enjoying some of the highest and most sustained positive polls in the recent history of our country. Bush made a fateful decision to invest his political capital in a risky venture in Iraq, finally resolving a decade-long conflict and ending several sources of irritation for the Arab world.
Namely, those were the ongoing sanctions regime in Iraq and the presence of US troops on Saudi soil. Bush opted to finally resolve the issue of the Hussein regime with the long-term goal of restoring Iraq to the family of nations and allowing the US to remove her forces from Saudi Arabia which had annoyed fundamentalist muslims since the first Gulf War.
While the results of the campaign in Iraq were mixed, much that was positive grew from it. For instance, we finally did withdraw our troops from Saudi Arabia, we did encourage Libya’s leader to disarm, resolve his obligations to victims of Libyan terrorism, we did uncover the AQ Khan network, we did unseat Saddam and his Baath party with the near term prospect of replacing it with an elected government.
However, soldiers died in the war and as expected, the longer the war drags on, the lower the American tolerance for casualties. Knowing this was likely, Bush put his presidency on the line and lost it.
But if you ask him, he’ll likely tell you it was worth it and that he’d make the same choice again.
As for Senator Kerry, he is now tasked with taking responsible positions in real time and then living with him. This is expected to annoy him greatly.
Because Edwards was properly coiffed.
Because John Kerry has a plan!!
(Make sure the batteries in your sarcasm detector are fresh)
Bush lost because the Left controls the media — they were relentless in their attacks. The Kool Aiders, the moron constituency has grown considerably in this country and this does not bode well for the Republican Party in the future. Patriotic, clear-thinking, selfless people will soon be the minority in the US. Even if Bush wins this time around, 2008 will see more potential Dem voters than GOP voters.
And Shannon is a perfect example of the above. A brain-dead automaton who spouts the Party line.
And I agree with Jake: Bush is not a good communicator when it comes to the media. He doesn’t know how to use it. Now, Ronald Reagan, there’s a communicator. If Reagan were running against Kerry he’d wipe the floor with him. And that’s an understatement.
If Bush loses, I’ll blame gullible voters who actually believe the tinfoil-hat garbage from Dan Rather and the NYT.
President Bush lost (perish the thought!) for the same reason that he almost lost in 2000, that his dad lost in ’92, that Ford lost in ’76 and Nixon lost in ’60… Democrats cheated, plain and simple!
Does anyone else sense a pattern here?
The fact that nearly half of the country are willing accomplices… is most disturbing of all…! As reports of the rampant election theft become well-known, the reports of “a divided country” over the last four years’ will be dwarfed by the vicious anger facing the new “president… Kerry”. Fortunately, at least until they take them away… our side still has the guns…!
Look at the bright side. You will be able to visit his Presidential Library 4 years sooner then if he had won. You can actually examine the papers the president used to make his decision to go to war.
The election was stolen by the liberal media, who have been brainwashing the American public for the last 4 years.
Then, on election day, the Dems cheated. Multiple registrants, double voters, felons, alzheimer’s patients, the deceased, you name it: All voted for Kerry.
Because It is far easier for the Socialist loving LLL Democrats, aided by the MSM, to manipulate the emotions of the superstitious, ill-informed, or gullible masses via knee-jerk sound bites, than it is for conservatives to logically explain the intricate inner machinations of the geopolitical whole, simply.
Besides that, Democrats are long masters of voter fraud, duplicitous ballot manipulations, legalese chicanery, and nefarious necromantic ballot-box stuffing..
Bush lost because many of his cabinet choices were pitiful. If you go back and read the National Review article on who he should pick, the problem isn’t he didn’t listen to conservatives too much, he didn’t listen to them enough. He wimped out early (Linda Chavez). His ego seemed too weak to take on strong personalities (Lugar for State, Gramm for Treasury). His best choices were actually his most maligned (Ashcroft, Rumsfeld). Kerry may actually do better in this regard if he picks some old pals to fill his cabinet (Bob Kerrey, George Mitchell).