What if John Kerry had won the 2004 election?

[banned from Kos]

Which party would sit in the White House today?

Bush was the worst President ever according to a survey of historians http://hnn.us/articles/48916.html. But would Kerry have been blamed since all of Bush's failures were set in motion in his first term?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. His inauguration speech would just be ending.

:D

[RC]

2. Kerry well may have won. But we will never know for sure.

[CTyankee]

3. I would like to think that mid point in the decade, we could have reversed the

worst things that Bush imposed. The Iraq War wasn't that old, we could have prevented the buildup of the financial crisis, and made real investments in green energy.

Sad that it was not to be...

[banned from Kos]

5. I don't see that. The GOP owned Congress until the sweep that brought

Pelosi and Reid in for 2007. By then everyone was disgusted with Bush and the GOP.

I think that if Kerry had won then today we would have a Republican president for sure.

[CTyankee]

11. Well I voted in hope for better. I sure don't think it could be worse.

[JI7]

4. i think Kerry could have stopped things from getting as bad as they did

if Kerry lost i think McCain would have won in 2008 but without Palin as VP Candidate. and Charlie Crist would be VP.

[hfojvt]

6. I think Congress would have tied him up

and the media would have crucified him for not being able to do anything.

Watching the election returns in 2004, the question of the Presidency was still up in the air when the election parties closed down by 11, but I felt we were screwed anyway because the Republican Congress had been re-elected.

But it would have kept Alito and Roberts off the court.

[JI7]

7. keeping Alito and Roberts off would have been worth it, especially with the ruling on corporations

and campaign finance. it might have made a difference in Congressional and State elections later on.

[madinmaryland]

12. Good point. Chief Justice, Steven Breyer???

Interesting direction the court would have taken with a liberal court! No Citizen's United. ELECTIONS MATTER! FUCK NADER.

[BeyondGeography]

8. One could argue that election was not worth winning

There was nothing Kerry could/would have done to reverse the mortgage securitization balloon (it caught the entire political and business establishment flat-footed), Iraq would have taken years to unwind, there would have been no appetite to change the tax code, and, when everything fell apart economically, which it would have, because the mortgage reckoning was decades in the making with Democratic and Republican support, Kerry would have been holding the bag.

I lost sleep when he lost, but it was nothing like 2000, which made me ill. The consolation prize in 2004 was the clarity of Bush as a failure, a Democratic Congress, because of the resulting hit the Republicans would take in 2006, and a Democratic President in 2008, none of which probably would have happened with Kerry winning in 2004. There was no consolation in 2000, only disaster.

[iamjoy]

10. I Would Have Rather Had That, Though

I would have rather won in 2004 (and not had Roberts, Alito on the SCOTUS) even if it meant losing in 2006 and 2008, but winning in 2010.

the results of having lost the 2010 election are nothing short of disastrous, and will help strengthen Republican majorities and a Conservative agenda for years to come. It has to do with redistricting...

[EV_Ares]

9. Don't know about Kerry but we would have been much better off if Gore had been President.

If Gore had not been screwed by the SC & been President I don't think we would have rushed into Iraq/Afghanistan and as a result of that, I don't feel our economy would have hit the depths of despair it has resulting in everyone being better off.

Will never know for sure but it is what I believe would have been.

[Motown_Johnny]

13. Interesting.......

I suppose it depends on how a Pres. Kerry would have acted while in office. If he spoke out against the Bush tax cuts and tried to save the economy before it collapsed he might have retained office. If he did nothing and just let everything fall apart the way Shrub did then he would have been out and we might have a President Jeb Bush today.



Remember Katrina wasn't until 2005 so not all Bush's failures were in motion by 2004.

[elocs]

14. Ahhh, the "what if" game. As close to useless as you can really get.

Right up there with how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. Now that's one I really want to know.