[JLS]

The idea is to win. G.W. Bush won reelection. He did not waste resources on Kerry until people were paying attention.

[robowombat]

A significant perhaps decisive part of Kerry's defeat was the Swiftboat campaign which the official Bush campaign team hated like poison. Part jealousy and part real GOP stupidity. The Swiftboaters were going to ‘drive independent voters away’. A moronic mantra GOP politruks have been chanting about any really strong and sustained attack on a Democrat candidate since Dewey's limp 1948 campaign helped elect Harry Truman. While underhanded and morally challenged the GOP careerists simply don't like real brass knuckle combat. They can't see why they should get their nice suits all wrinkled over something like an election. After all there will be another one in four years. Watch a corrupt cowardly ass like Mitch McConnell in (in)action to get a good object lesson in how a career GOP type thinks and acts.