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2004 US Presidential Election
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November 04, 2004
Misc. | 10 Things Kerry Should Have Changed

OK - let’s not get too carried away with Bush’s victory.

The fact of the matter is that the result of the election hung on just 68,000 voters in Ohio. That’s just 1.25% of the total Ohio vote. If 68,000 people in Ohio voted for Kerry instead of Bush - then we would have had a dead heat and the Ohio ballots would be in the courts today - giving us the 2000 election all over again.

John Kerry came within 68,000 votes of possibly winning the Presidency. Let that sink in for a moment.

Personally, I think John Kerry screwed up in a big way. His campaign was an embarrassment of poor decision making. Looking back - here are the 10 things Kerry should have changed which would have won him the election.

Continue reading - No Way to Run a Campaign - 20/20 Hindsight



Posted by Chris at November 4, 2004 07:51 AM | TrackBack
Comments

Chris, I think this is probably an op/ed, and isn’t within the guidelines for 2004 page posts …

Posted by: Alan [TypeKey Profile Page] at November 4, 2004 08:20 AM

Chris,

I find it analytically unreasonable to view the margin of victory in Ohio in isolation from the margin of victory in all other states. Basically, you are suggesting that outcomes in other states would remain unchanged while you experiment with causative variables that would have had an effect on all voter decisions, not just those in Ohio, yet in this analysis, only the Ohio votes would change.
Careful and accurate analysis of the impact of changes in such variables would actually be quite complex and require articulation of many assumptions, including the interplay of changes in variables upon one another.

Just an observation.

Posted by: Jim McClintock [TypeKey Profile Page] at November 4, 2004 01:16 PM

Jim - I understand the “interconnectedness” of the suggestions but the main point is that all 10 of the things I point out resulted in negatives for Kerry. My suggestions were geared toward either turning them into positives for Kerry (or lesser negatives). The end result probably been a better Kerry showing across the board and a Kerry victory.

Posted by: Chris_L [TypeKey Profile Page] at November 4, 2004 04:53 PM

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