this post proves the difficulty that Kerry

[ray of light]

would have had in 04 beating a 'war time pReisdent'.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2753561

[ProSense]

1. So true! Incredible. n/t

[wisteria]

2. It certainly indicates the mindset of the American public in 2004 and

it explains why it was so important for the RW to discredit Senator Kerry war record and his support of the troops. It was the one issue,besides the war itself, that the American people bought in to. The republicans still us the troops for their political gain.

[rockymountaindem]

3. That's what I say all the time

I don't know what the story was in liberal-land, where the haters who complain "he lost to the worst President ever" obviously live, but in my hometown I knew a *ton* of people who thought their very future existance depended on Bush winning the Presidency, and that if Kerry won we might as well all eat the gun to save the terrorists the pleasure.

Seriously. And to talk to them for five minutes, you'd think they were normal. But no. These are the kind of people who believe things like "if a Republican were President, we'd have won Vietnam". Yessir... we were gonna make a lot of progress with those people :sarcasm:

[cadmium]

4. sounds like my extended family

My immediate family - wife, brother, mom are all liberal dem supporters, but when we branch out to cousins etc it was a battle of Good (Bush) versus Evil (Kerry). For every one of us there were ten of them.

[karynnj]

8. My family split like that too

more than half Kerry, but with many who spoke of how Bush rallied the nation. Even last year, it was only in smaller side conversations where one sister, one brother and I (with spouses) spoke of things like PNAC and the concern that simply having any Democrat win was not sufficient that politics were spoken. Another sister and my favorite brother-in-law were open to the spread democracy ideas - coming from very genuine sincere humanitarian reasons. The other 5 siblings would likely have been shocked at what the three of us believed to be true.

The first hint of how Bush had bonded with people was when in summer 2002, my mom said that though she voted for Gore, weren't we happy Bush won seeing that he was able to motivate people - she was surprised at the loud "No"s of many of her kids.

What people forget is that 2004 looked pretty tough until spring of 2004. The change was likely a combination of what people saw in war hero Kerry and the negatives of things like Abu Ghraib. By War hero Kerry, I mean more than his actions in Vietnam, but the strong, calm, leader persona he projected. Beachmom had a very insightful post here recently that showed that it was that, plus Kerry's real integrity and honesty that were challanged by the SBVT ads. Kerry needed the party to defend his image - and many failed. Other than Clark, no other Democrat had the credentials to speak on terrorism and foreign policy - and from the primaries, he didn't have the political skills or personality needed. (In retrospect, I wish Kerry would have gambled on Gary Hart or Clark as VP)

Now, people forget that time. Edwards is among the worst. The fact of the matter is that even the Democrats voting in the primary knew that a tramatized country was not looking for an ex-trial lawyer with nice hair and a good smile. Many people who told polsters that Kerry was electable didn't mean it as a negative - or even that they liked another candidate better.

[MBS]

5. This is great, thanks

So are all the comments here. Rockymountaindem and Cadmium, people in lieberalland seem not to get, to this day, what the atmosphere was in Red America, and how hard the battle really was. ( I'm from the west, so these guys were my neighborsfor most of my life).

Yeah, I had vaguely registered that those ribbons were much less prevalanet than they had been . . And W04 stickers are finally gone around here (I still see Kerry stickets though : ))

Did you see Cafe Press link posted by one of the comments? I checked it out, and there are some fun slogans there
http://www.cafepress.com/buy/yellow%20ribbon%20impeach/-/cfpt2_/copt_/cfpt_368:________F______P___b7_a2/source_searchBox/x_16/y_13. My favorite (besides the yellow-ribbon "impeach bush") is "If you voted for Bush, a yellow reibbon isn't going to make up for it"

[rox63]

6. I still see the occasional * sticker

Even here in Mass. Two particular cars at work sport their "W04" stickers proudly. But they kinda stick out like freaks lately. And the magnetic yellow ribbons have mostly gone away.

[fedupinBushcountry]

7. They are still here

I think Beachmom and I still live in the strongest conservative city in the nation. I feel like puking some days between the confederate flags, the God license plates, W'04, support the troops and the president, the fish, etc. That is not even counting the multiple ribbons on cars. Help!!!!