Bush was weak on defense (My Pet Goat, the Tora Bora outsourcing, 380 tons of missing explosives, the needless Iraq War/Quaqmire, the Plame treason - plus Bush was an AWOL cokehead TxANG deserter while Kerry got 2 Purple Hearts in Viet Nam) and weak on the economy (tax cuts for the rich, millions of jobs lost, trillions in deficits) - not to mention weak on healthcare (the flu shot disaster, the phoney Medicare numbers, Social Security privatization), the environment (pulling out of Kyoto), etc.
Bush "won" because the media is a bunch of highly-paid whores, the polls are skewed to favor Republicans - and the voting machines are hackable.
The idea that Bush "won" because "values voters" are more afraid of gay marriage and abortion than they are of Bin Laden or joblessness - this is pure bullshit - but it's being spun that way by "respectable" op-ed writers - such as Nicholas Kristof in NYT.
Some spineless idiots are saying that Dems have to abandon support for reproductive rights and gay rights in view of Bush's "mandate" (a 1% edge in an election with hackable machines).
Nicholas Kristof is one of these spineless idiots - and James Wolcott lets him have it today on his blog.
http://jameswolcott.com/archives/2004/11/merry_kristof.phphttp://www.jameswolcott.com