I wonder if Kerry had picked Richardson if it might have carried NM and NV for him. It still wouldn't have mattered, however, unless he could win Ohio.
Kerry could have focused on 3 areas in his VP pick - the south, the upper midwest, or the soutwest.
I think his decision to focus on the south was probably the worst choice, because even with Edwards he had little to no chance of winning anything there.
The southwest may have provided a path to victory without Ohio, if he could have pulled it off - Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada. Or he could have focused on the midwest and upper midwest.
It's Monday morning quarterbacking, but it's pretty clear that Edwards delivered nothing, and may have been a drag on the ticket. I also thought Edwards' part of the concession speech was awful - just that nasty defiance that we have come to expect from certain segments of the Democratic party, and it compared very badly to the much more gracious speech by Sen. Kerry. Maybe it was deliberate that they created that contrast.