why did bush perform so poorly in new york?

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

..and no it wasnt guns.  sadly the american people have shown they dont care for gun control.

Around here it was.  Look at New Jersey.  Slap Nader's 3% onto Gore's total and you get just shy of 60% for Gore in NJ in a close election.  Bush couldn't even crack 50% in Ocean County... McCain hit 60%.  The former was in a national tie and the latter was in a near landslide for the Dems.

NY was Gore 2nd best state, and NJ was his 5th.  Gun control was huge in central/north NJ and NYC that year.  

Gun control is an issue that the U.S. has actually moved backwards on in the last several years.  It might not seem like that now.    

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

Bush was also more culturally repulsive to the urban Northeast than Dole was.

but he was less culturally repulsive in 2004?

The only part of the country that decided cultural issues mattered one iota in the 2004 election was in the Heartland.  Everywhere else, especially the Northeast, voted on 3 things: the economy, the War on Terror, and the War in Iraq.  The opinion of GWB on these 3 issues was not all that bad in 2004 in the Northeast.  Look at Jersey, CT, and NYC.  Hard trends to Bush nearly everywhere that saw a particularly high numbers of residents or those close to them die/suffer injures on 9/11.  Monmouth County, NJ had a couple towns hit especially hard with loss of life.  Everywhere else in the Northeast saw uniform swings.  Pennsylvania and Maryland shifted exactly as the notion did, Delaware just a little more towards Bush.  New England went with their hometown boy. 

Interestingly enough, Manhattan trended to Kerry.  Why?  **** if I know.