...he noted that Bush had won with the smallest percentage margin ever for an incumbent and complained that the Republican team had six years to develop its electoral strategy while his had only eight months...
This just kills me. So what he is saying is "Imcumbents are supposed to win big, or lose. So a win with a narrow margin is really a loss, not a win." And, "I only had 8 months to figure out what I stood for, while the President was consistent in his beliefs."
Kerry is spinning thru' his teeth and he knows it. Bush did have big liabilities--the Iraq war, lack of WMD's, ho-hum economy (or at least a perception thereof), high gas prices, awful 1st debate, etc.--that he "should" have lost, at least in theory. Good thing Kerry ran a less than inspiring campaign and was such a turn-off as a person and a candidate that enough people couldn't bring themselves to vote for him to put him over the top.