He tried being both for and against everything, and I suspect it just confused the hell out of a lot of people. Furthermore, he tried paiting himself as a pro-military tough guy, was which one of the biggest attempted bait-and-switch jobs in American electoral history, considering that it's belied by his entire life history from the moment he got back from Vietnam. In the end, most people just didn't buy the lemon.
If we had found new wmds in Iraq, Kerry would have been lucky to get 45% of the vote. That's even with the huge propaganda lift Big Media gives all Dems. But that help is going to wane over the years as more people shun the big lib networks and rags. Their only hope is to grow more dependent Dems. In that respect they have an edge. But in the short-term future they are miserably out of step with mainstreet America. Hint to the Jane Smiley's etal of the world, America is not typified by effete, snob upper-West Side Manhattan salons or trendy places on the left coast. They better get a clue real quick if they want to be competetive in 2008. The Clinton's are sly, but they'll need more than slyness.