As I said earlier, what ifs and hypotheticals are useless.
But maybe you can tell me what the #1 source of support for John Kerry was if it was not the lefts hate filled ABB.
Seriously, outside of "not being Bush", what about John Kerry garnered him the support he got?
When you get more than 59 million votes, there is probably a whole spectrum of reasons why. There was a very vocal far left in the campaign that argued ABB. They spoke mostly to themselves and to FReepers slumming at DU. I know from going door to door in my community that it was much more complicated than that. Sure, very few people actually "knew" John Kerry, or George Bush, for that matter. Nevertheless, these individuals embodied the hopes and wishes of large constituencies. The campaigns they headed turned out huge numbers of voters on both an absolute and historic percentage basis. This is the very definition of a strong candidate.