virginia?

[WalterMitty]

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?

[elcorazon]

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

[WalterMitty]

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

[elcorazon]

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.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

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


Many apologies

[Oregreen]

LOL. This thread is funny.

[Replicator]

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?

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.

[sg0508]

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.

[Devils30]

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.