Did Hillary cost Kerry the election?

[dazzleman]

The Hildebeast did not cost Kerry the election, though I think she was hardly broken-hearted over the outcome.

The Clintons went through the motions of helping Kerry, at least late in the campaign, though they did not want him to win.

I'd say Bill Clinton hurt Kerry more than the Hildebeast did by immediately leaking to the press the fact that he was giving Kerry advice, thereby making Kerry look weak and unable to make his own decisions.  Though he probably did this at his wife's behest.

I think Kerry's wife hurt him in the campaign.  She appears to have a "Betty Ford" problem, and kept making outrageous comments that could only alienate potential supporters.

[dazzleman]

It's funny how no one seems to think of the fact that considering the closeness of the election you cannot call one candidate horrible without calling the other at the very least pretty bad.

I think both were pretty weak and it was a matter of who was weakest.

Good point.  I don't think either one was a horrible candidate, but they both had significant weaknesses.  I think it turned out that Bush had some real strengths to balance out his weaknesses, while Kerry did not.  He was simply the ABB candidate, and that wasn't enough.  He offered nothing positive, and therefore most attracted the votes of people who simply didn't like Bush.