[neverdem]

Stephan Savoia/Associated Press
JULY: Senator John Kerry at the Democratic National Convention.

[MNJohnnie]

Let them keep kidding themselves. Kerry didn't cost them the election, THEIR IDEAS cost them this election. "Global Test" cost them this election.

[Redcoat LI]

"Other factors........were Mr. Bush's gamble to run on terrorism and his repeated use of a clear, concise message"

Only the Times would consider a clear concise message to be a gamble.

Always better to go with a murky overly verbose message.

[stylin19a]

Many advisers said Mr. Kerry's most obvious mistake was his long delay in responding forcefully to the attacks by members of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the group of Vietnam veterans who criticized Mr. Kerry in a best-selling book and television commercials as a liar, a traitor and a coward.

They STILL don't get it. The swifties had him in a box, he couldn't move, he couldn't breath. He wasn't prepared for a response.

If Kerry responds, he now not only has to answer the Swifties charges, but MSM would have jumped in with their own questions.

He had to have time to come up with a plan
He COULDN'T answer...all he could do was have his minions attack the swifites...with the now infamous O'Donnell "liar, Liar, pants on fire" attack.

[lp boonie]

Or maybe the problem was the candidates ideas and moral character? Nah,couldn't be that, he just didn't campaign well enough. Dear Rats here's a dime--go buy a clue.

[Agrarian]

"He kept faith with every piece of the center-right coalition - taxpayers, property owners, investors, businessmen, home-schoolers, gun owners and all communities of faith," said Grover Norquist, a leading conservative and the president of Americans for Tax Reform.

And that sums up why W won. Republicans thinking of nominating someone who can't mobilize and fire up ALL of those groups are suicidal. In other words, let's please make Guiliani and his ilk "distinguished Senators" from New York, CA, MA, etc... -- but not try to run them for president.

[NYCVirago]

There were also Mr. Kerry's swings and misses: calling the Green Bay Packers stadium Lambert Field, not Lambeau, and mangling the names even of his own beloved Red Sox.

Funny how the Times writes about these items now, when they ignored them during the campaign. Imagine that.