Bush lost because he has been unable to carry the Philadelphia suburbs. Pro-life Conservatives Santorum and Fisher in 2000, and Moderater Specter and Pro-life Conservative Corbett in 2004 did, and they won.
Its as simple as that. It has nothing to do with fraud, of which there is next to zero.
Philadelphia fraud is a do-nothing excuse for Monday Morning Quaterbacks whom simply don't understand that Bush didn't sell well in the Philly suburbs, even as the Republicans mostly cleaned up at the down ticket races in these same locales.
Personally, I think that Republicans need to run an attractive northern Pro-Life/Pro-Gun German Catholic Governor to win bascially Republican states like Maine, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. That's why I keep suggesting John Engler of Michigan. Schweiker of Pennsylvania would have also been a good candidate had he stuck around longer.
As long as we stick with southerners and Californians we aren't going to do as well up north as we should as a party.
Whether or not doing well in those states is important to us as a party is a different question. I believe they are the only way to a lasting majority.
Kerry seemed to have had a massive vote out of Philadelphia however, as compared to Gore. It looks like Gerlach will be spending his last term in Congress. Chester is deteriorating almost as fast of Montgomery it seems.