Michael Moore was the person most hated by the Bush WH,

[Ken Burch]

134. Because our party ran an incompetent, deferential, defeatist campaign in 2004

Because our ticket obsessed on not appeasing a "center" that didn't actually exist(there wasn't this huge group of people who were neither prowar NOR antiwar on Iraq) and on running away from the term "liberal&quot when running away from the word and acting like the idea of liberalism was inherently shameful and indefensible doesn't work for a party that has to mobilize liberal and, if possible radical voters to have any chance of getting elected).

John Kerry could have been a great president, but he refused to do the one thing that could have got him elected solidly...run as the hero of 1971. Instead, he ran as a comfortable part of the establishment, as an opponent of the liberal/progressive wing of the party(he'd made a disgusting speech at Harvard calling for the party to ditch affirmative action, which would be the same thing as giving up on fighting racism at all), barred antiwar signs from the 2004 convention, barred explicit opposition to the Iraq War and Patriot Act repeal(he introduced a meaningless bill to slightly water down the Patriot Act instead), treated the activist community like lepers and reduced the fall campaign to flag fetishism and bland, empty calls to "duty".

We should have been able to COUNT on winning in 2004, and our party choose to put inoffensiveness ahead of an actual fight to win.