My mom had taken a magic marker and made little purple hearts on bandaids. I passed them out to people. It was a real hoot! Obviously, that was not the only factor, and people like my mom may have been rare across the country. But Bush, a successful wartime incumbent, did have a hard time with such a vulnerable twit, which is the basic point being made, IMHO.
You people who predicted that President Bush was going to lose the elections all year long in 2004, have suddenly changed your dumb argument from president Bush certain defeat prediction to a dumber argument of how did Bush win only by few points over a weak candidate like Kerry. You did this in order to save face after your moronic analysis and predictions last year were proven wrong, and you think that many on FR did not notice this.