# Why so sad? Only a 1% difference in 1 state--and Kerry would have won. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 3, 2004, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-sad-only-a-1-difference-in-1-state-and-kerry-would-have-won/272836 "2004-11-03T20:23:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-sad-only-a-1-difference-in-1-state-and-kerry-would-have-won/272836/21 "2004-11-03T23:11:05Z")
This is just a case of after election depression, the Democrat’s values and ideas have been rejected nationally with a pretty commanding statement (the biggest electoral victory for President since 1988). The only thing to do is belittle the American people so it looks like they were misguided instead of just “in disagreement” with liberal sympathies. ---
**Author:** ![Airblairxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Airblairxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airblairxxx)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-sad-only-a-1-difference-in-1-state-and-kerry-would-have-won/272836/22 "2004-11-03T23:16:57Z")
> [@Martin Hyde](#): > > This is just a case of after election depression, the Democrat’s values and ideas have been rejected nationally with a pretty commanding statement (the biggest electoral victory for President since 1988). > > The only thing to do is belittle the American people so it looks like they were misguided instead of just “in disagreement” with liberal sympathies. No, there’s other things to do, like mock people who think a 3 percentage-point win for a wartime incumbent is anything resembling “a pretty commanding statement”. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-sad-only-a-1-difference-in-1-state-and-kerry-would-have-won/272836/23 "2004-11-03T23:30:27Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > I think a **Smart** Rich Guy trumps a **Stupid** Rich Guy every time, myself. Mm… how about “A stupid rich guy with Karl Rove on his team trumps a stupid rich guy without a decent spin doctor?” I’m not depressed because Bush won. I’m depressed because the people Bush has been most cheerfully screwing sideways rose up in a righteous wave… and voted him back into office. We learned nothing from the Reagan Administration, and have gone and done the whole damned stupid thing all over again… but even worse. A mealy-mouthed near-draft-dodger successfully trumped a decorated war veteran in the most important political race in the country. That’s it. Truth is now officially meaningless. Welcome ye now to Spin Nation… where whoever screams the loudest, buys the most advertising space and time, and uses the best and most underhanded tricks is Officially Right. Hope we like it. We voted for it, after all. Well, just over half of us, anyway… ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2004, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-sad-only-a-1-difference-in-1-state-and-kerry-would-have-won/272836/24 "2004-11-03T23:35:24Z")
[QUOTE=Martin Hyde] This is just a case of after election depression, the Democrat’s values and ideas have been rejected nationally with a pretty commanding statement (the biggest electoral victory for President since 1988)./QUOTE]274 electoral votes is the biggest electoral victory since 1988? ---
**Author:** ![Rashak\_Mani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@Rashak\_Mani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rashak_Mani)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-sad-only-a-1-difference-in-1-state-and-kerry-would-have-won/272836/25 "2004-11-04T01:52:42Z")
hhmmm… Bush screwed up jobs and the economy… invaded Iraq without a plan for peace… 1k dead GIs… the West and the US bitterly divided… Osama alive and well… Abu Ghraib and Gitmo human rights atrocities… record deficits. After all this he got re-elected ? No wonder we’re sad. Do keep in mind that he did all this without much legitimacy about his election in 2000 and with less republicans in Congress. Imagine now that he has been given a clear victory and needs not concern himself about re-election ? I sure think he will screw around more and spend even more. What will stop him ? ---
**Author:** ![PigBoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/97f17d/32.png) [@PigBoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PigBoy)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-sad-only-a-1-difference-in-1-state-and-kerry-would-have-won/272836/26 "2004-11-04T02:37:42Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > 113 million Americans voted, and if only 65.000 Ohio residents had changed their minds and gone for Kerry, the whole world would be different. If 65,000 Ohio voters had changed their minds, I cannot even imagine the bickering that would occur. Kerry would have won the presidency while still losing the popular vote by 3.5 million- a crazy reverse 2000 where Bush even has a majority! ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-sad-only-a-1-difference-in-1-state-and-kerry-would-have-won/272836/27 "2004-11-04T03:05:26Z")
This wasn’t just a 1% victory. Because Republicans also picked up four Senate seats, House seats, a governorship, and extended their leads in state legislatures. Last night was a clean sweep for the Republicans. Remember, Bush won the popular vote by 3.5 million votes. Even in Democratic states like California Bush closed the gap. As for this gloom and doom, for me this is a replay of 1984, when Reagan was re-elected. I heard exactly the same thing. Even more dire, in fact. Deficits were bigger, the cold war was at its tensest point, etc. My liberal friends were convinced that their children would not survive to grow up, all because Walter Mondale did not win an election. Please. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-sad-only-a-1-difference-in-1-state-and-kerry-would-have-won/272836/28 "2004-11-04T03:19:47Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > Kerry supporters–cheer up!You are not alone–you are solidly supported by almost half the population > You’ll get your day in the sun, and then us conservatives will rant and scream about it. I’m confident of that, but for the next four years, Bush and Co. will be running things however they like, and we Dems expect them to do a lot of damage in that time. Maybe pack the SC with Scalia clones. Maybe start another war. Maybe run up such huge deficits that our grandchildren will still be paying them off. **That’s** why we’re so sad. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-sad-only-a-1-difference-in-1-state-and-kerry-would-have-won/272836/29 "2004-11-04T03:33:41Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > **That’s** why we’re so sad. Actually, no…that’s not why I’m so sad. I’m so sad because the electorate has proven that it CANNOT tell the difference between a lie and the truth. It cannot tell the difference between reality and fantasy. It cannot tell the difference between fact and fiction. As long as a folksy, down-home guy drawls the right spiel, the American people will buy it. Whether it’s factual or fictional, doesn’t matter. I’m not so much angry about the future anymore as I am…disappointed. Maybe I overestimated the American people. Maybe I gave them more credit to be able to see through REALLY REALLY thin veils of lies than they deserved. Maybe I underestimated the delusional capacity of the average human being. It’s like the victim of a rapist looking up after the ordeal is finally over and asking for another go. And then (in the case of the huge majorities voting against gay marriage) going out to savagely rape someone else in turn. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-sad-only-a-1-difference-in-1-state-and-kerry-would-have-won/272836/30 "2004-11-04T03:42:15Z")
Perhaps not. If Iraq continues to go badly, and there is no indication otherwise, GeeDubya will suffer politically. The people who supported Bush this time out have bought that war, it belongs to them. We did everything we could to dissuade them, but they wouldn’t listen, so its theirs now. As the war continues to go badly, GeeDubyas approval rating continues to decline. By this time next year, it is entirely possible that our Congresscritters will start bailing, trying to distance themselves from GeeDubya. It isn’t _impossible_ that the war will be the splendid and universally applauded success that Mr. Cheney swears that it is. But its damned bloody unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-sad-only-a-1-difference-in-1-state-and-kerry-would-have-won/272836/31 "2004-11-04T03:43:53Z")
> [@Martin Hyde](#): > > This is just a case of after election depression, the Democrat’s values and ideas have been rejected nationally with a pretty commanding statement (the biggest electoral victory for President since 1988). > . What on Earth are you talking about? Clinton won by over 200 EV in each of his two elections. If you change your sentence to read “the biggest electoral victory for President since 2000”, then you would be accurate, but your point still would make no sense. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2004, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-sad-only-a-1-difference-in-1-state-and-kerry-would-have-won/272836/32 "2004-11-04T03:49:48Z")
> [@Martin Hyde](#): > > This is just a case of after election depression, the Democrat’s values and ideas have been rejected nationally with a pretty commanding statement (the biggest electoral victory for President since 1988). Uh… not quite. 1992: Clinton 370, Bush 168 1996: Clinton 379, Dole 159 In both cases Clinton’s lead in popular vote was also greater than Bush’s in 2004. Clinton carried the usual Democrat strongholds but also took a lot of the South. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-sad-only-a-1-difference-in-1-state-and-kerry-would-have-won/272836.md?page=1)