I wish everyone would stop criticizing John Kerry....

It's not his fault. He did the best job that anyone could do under the circumstances. If anybody, we should blame ourselves.

I am still proud of the guy, I am more mad at people who voted their own intolerance over a better ecocomy, etc.

People still believe Saddam was behind 9/11...how much more stupid can we get as a nation?

I blame those who hate gay people more then they love democracy. Bigots outnumbered common good, justice and equality.

Those 8 million bigots don't exist. Those are OUR votes, rerouted to Bush.

I know those votes are ours but I also know that fundies came out in droves hence the 11 state amendment.

Those bigots do exsist and those votes are ours. I don't think it is unreasonable to believe both.

Edited to add: I am not a freeper simpleton. There is a effed up dynamic that took place.

and she didn't win the Presidency, unlike Kerry. He let down everyone who voted for him when he conceded.

We're fighting so a legitimate president can take over and for democracy. Kerry just happened to be the guy who won and the beneficiary of our actions. He is total slime for conceding. If we could make Edwards president instead of him, I think the voters who voted for the ticket would now be a lot happier.

Making our votes count.

I agree. Senator Kerry is still the same man I proudly voted for, and would vote for again.

You know how bad we feel; can you imagine how he must feel? He has worked and given his whole life for this country. I've run for office. I've won and lost. But, I never had to lose and wonder if the loss was from fraud. I can't imagine.

And, let us not forget that they have had the additional blow of Mrs. Edward's health problems.

AGAIN. if, AGAIN, democrats fail to address this AGAIN, then i will blame them, AGAIN.
how many times can we let this happen, then claim the party leaders are blamesless, republicans are blameless (it's was all nader's fault), but WE are supposedly to blame?! no way...i want some ACCOUNTABILITY from my government, and from the people i voted for who got screwed AGAIN.

he wasn't the one who chose to 'play nice' on some of the issues people were hollering about here that he should have addressed. He let his campaign staff make a few decisions that, had he made them differently, at least a lot of us here would have been happier to see and might have gained him crucial percentages in a couple of states. But maybe not, too.

I've come to think blaming 'ourselves' isn't very productive, either, though. Some DUers did everything they could short of cheating to get people to the polls; most of us did something, whether it was volunteering time or donating money; I'm willing to bet few active DUers didn't, at the least, inform themselves and get off their asses and vote. The only ones who really deserve blame are the ones who should have but didn't vote, if there are any. I'm sure now none would admit it!

A combination of things went to give Bush the edge in clearly divided electorate -- some Kerry campaign weaknesses that I can't totally blame on the candidate; some dirty, unethical campaigning; some dirty, unethical election-day stuff like what went on in Ohio. There was little that any of us could have done -- we had plenty of people hollering about the weaknesses of receiptless electronic voting machines, and plenty of people hollering about what was going to happen in Ohio, and these things have been reported in the media. The problem is, our elected representatives caused the problems HAVA has enabled, like EV and voter suppression tactics, and no matter how much hollering we do here and to our reps, our reps are the only ones who can do anything about any of it.

Kerry-as-candidate was the least of his own problems, and it's not like it was a massive gap in the popular vote, nothing like the Reagan re-election numbers. Too many unpredictable or untouchable things went agin' Kerry and, by extension, us. What use, at this point, to lay any blame anywhere? There were, quite simply, too many things in play way over our heads that we really couldn't have changed. It's not a pretty thought, and it does tend to make me feel less than optimistic that anything will be any better in '06 or '08, but I, personally feel this is reality.

All we can do is keep hollering about the things that can be changed, and learn to live with the ones that can't. Was there massive fraud? I don't know. Maybe. Does blaming Kerry change anything? Nah, of course it doesn't. Will screaming about it, blaming ourselves and others and Kerry and Mary Beth Cahill change it? Hell, no.

Infighting. Too many organizations with different messages all trying to say the same thing but getting pissed off it it isn't said the right way.

If the DNC is anything like the DEC here in Florida, it's no wonder we lost. The leaders here in Florida are a bunch of assholes, everyone working for their own fucking egos and excluding anyone who threatens their position.

Democrats did not say what they meant, or mean what they said. I have sisions of dems chasing their tails for the next four years.

...Cheney, Rove and the rest of the vampires...and their simpleton supporters who see nothing wrong with a little vote fraud if it keeps "god in the white house"...