Senator Kerry- the first casualty of the Housing Bubble?

[wisteria]

I know this post rehashes the past, but I think it provides an interesting angle on what else was going on in 2004.

"Before the humbling of Citi and AIG, Senator John Kerry lost to a house of cards…"

http://collegetimes.us/the-first-victim-of-the-housing-bubble-john-kerry/


Edited to add this is not to make light of all those people throughout the country who face hardships due to our present economy.

[karynnj]

1. Nice find - it is a very thoughtful article

and it fits nicely with things Kerry said in 2008 - that in 2004, the perception was that the economy was good and people were not yet ready to say that Bush was doing the wrong things on Iraq. Kerry's comments on "jobless recovery" and his comments dealing with the part of the population who were doing worse - with healthcare costs and tuition costs rising faster than there salaries were accurate, but were not yet personal for many seeing their assets (mostly their homes, but about the half of the country had stocks mostly through 401Ks) rising in value. That and the perception of the war are why 2008 was so different than 2004 - and I suspect that now, as the market continued to fall after November, even more people are negative on the economy.

This is also backed by the polling on eve of the election. Look at question 7, 59% of likely voters thought that things in the country were going very well or fairly well. This shows that 2004 was NOT a change election. Kerry represented change on everything. That he won some of that 59% is impressive. Look at question 9, and you can see why the Republicans succeeded in shifting the "most important issue" in their favor - and even in July where the polling started they had 53% for the sum of Iraq and terrorism. By November, it was 59%. Had the housing bubble not been fed in 2002-2004, those numbers would have been more in Kerry's favor and as we all know he came very close to winning. Given the responses to the underlying questions, this would have been an incredible upset beating a President at a time of war - conflated with trauma from the first major attack on mainland USA - with a reasonable economy and a lapdog media.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/polls/usatodaypolls.htm

[wisteria]

2. You have done a wonderful job bringing this altogether and explaining the outcome.

When taking all of this into account I can't help but think how well Kerry did even faced with those odds.

[MBS]

3. thanks for this

It really is thoughtful .. I looked up the author. . he describes himself as a "3rd Year Medical Student, interested in cancer research, arts, politics, and my community"