Was John Kerry attacked by his own party?

[Da2017]

Was kerry forced to move left because of Dean? Like how Romney had to move right because of the party?

[Kingpoleon]

No. Dean would have beaten George W. Bush.

[Hydera]

Was kerry forced to move left because of Dean? Like how Romney had to move right because of the party?

Yes i remember a lot of talk in 2004 was that people would definitely vote for John kerry only because they hated Bush so much for starting a war in iraq and at the same time criticized him for being neoliberal/third way/etc. 

[darklordoftech]

If you ignore the know-nothing media narratives and look at the geography of the results and macro-level indicators, it's pretty clear that John Kerry performed about as well as any presidential challenger has in modern political history. He ran a solid campaign.

It's important to remember the dire state of political journalism in the mid-naughts. Nate Silver gets treated as a bit of a punching bag today, sometimes deservedly, but when you look at how elections were covered before 2008... yikes...

I think it's exceedingly likely that Howard Dean would have been a McGovern-tier nominee. He was a poor fit for large parts of the party (and not just the parts that you're thinking of), a sloppy campaigner, and deservedly became a political punchline (albeit not for the right reasons).

Just about his only virtue in 2004 was daring to speak out against US military aggression while stumbling into raising enough funds over the internet that the large media conglomerates complicit in that aggression couldn't ignore him like the other war critics. It didn't take long for them to jump on the first transgression that they could ridicule.

Whenever someone complains about Facebook and Twitter, try to remember what it was like coping with yesteryear's information monopolies. The median voter today is probably crazier, but at least they are divided in their insanity. Unified insanity was why we invaded Iraq, and unified insanity was also why all of the "serious" Democratic presidential hopefuls in 2004 were afraid to openly oppose that invasion.

[NCJeff]

Was kerry forced to move left because of Dean? Like how Romney had to move right because of the party?

Kerry won the primary on perceived competence and electoral strength, not by winning the allegiance of any particular set of issue voters.

And after the Bush Administration's dismal handling of the war in 2003 and 2004, I don't see how any challenger couldn't have made hay of that.  If Gore had been elected, and had prosecuted the war with such incompetence, the Republicans would have taken Kerry's position.  Unfortunately for Kerry, the public didn't turn against Bush quickly enough.