Many people, including myself, were shocked that Bush was elected legitimately. We were so convinced that the public would pick the right candidate because it was so obvious that Bush's record as president was shady. Something just didn't go right. As I think back to the Bush and Kerry campaigns it's clear that Bush had more money earlier in the race and was able to label Kerry. I live in a swing state so I got bombarded with presidential campaign ads of all kinds. In the beginning though it was all Bush. Flip-flopper, tax raiser, big government supporter were labels branded early on Kerry that wouldn't come off later in the campaign.
I kept wondering why Kerry was just waiting around taking this abuse. Did he think that everybody knew that Bush was doing a bad job and that anybody else would be better? No, he wanted to make the ads and remind people of Bush's actions, he just didn't have the financial support that Bush had. All the efforts Kerry made later were not enough to change many people's opinions about him.
Like Ralph Nader says, Bush is just a big corporation disguised as a human being. He used his corporate connections to fund his campaign while guaranteeing them tax breaks. Although married to a wealthy woman, Kerry needed the financial support of the anti-Bush citizen population. He got it, but he got it too late. As soon as those Bush campaign ads started playing people should have donated funds to the Kerry campaign.
Once again it was financial resources, not leadership policies, that decided this election. Even with a presidential candidate who "makes Nixon look like Lincoln" more people still voted for him. I have a strong feeling that people in Florida, but especially Ohio, will be regretting their choice in the future.
