Talk Elections

not trying to rub it in, but what happened to kerry in va?  we all heard about the 'trend' and NOVA going democratic.  kerry pissed away a bunch of money in the state.  in the end it turned out to be a no-contest.

what went wrong?

they took a bit of a shot there... no different than Bush in Hawaii or New Jersey, which weren't any closer than Virginia. 

bush improved dramitaclly in new jersey.  he only lost by 6 compared to 16 in 2000.

yes, but he still lost by a decent margin.  Let us not forget Bush gained 4% nationally from 2000.  If the election had been a tie, theoretically Kerry may have been within 4 or 5% in Virginia, and Kerry may have won NJ by 9 or 10%.  The real surprise was Bush's margin in the popular vote.  So much for undecideds breaking to the challenger.

I actually wrote a long reply to this. I read it and realised it was the "string up the strategists" rant again.


Many apologies

LOL. This thread is funny.

How much did he spend there? I don't remember much campaigning going on. I've always thought that more time spent there by Kerry would've caused some of Bush's OH money to be spent there.

He gave up on VA way too soon. Bush constantly put pressure on Kerry in the bluish states that could have fallen his way had the election turned into a mini-landslide (i.e. PA, MI, MN, etc).  Kerry didn't put nearly enough pressure on the Bush states from '00, VA being one of them and to this day, I believe Mark Warner when he says VA was winnable in '04 for the Democrats.  Yes, it would have been an outside chance, but there was a chance and the state was turning.

Virginia wasn't winnable for the Dems in a year where the GOP won by 2.5%. Even in 2008 it was a point more R than the national vote. Kerry improved from Gore in the places Obama surged like Loudoun, Prince William, Henrico.