2004 Presidential Election (Kerry 2004)

United States presidential election, 2004
All 538 electoral votes of the Electoral College; 270 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout	56.7%
	Presidential election results map
President before election; George W Bush; Republican Party	Elected President ; John Kerry; Democratic Party

The 2004 United States presidential election, the 55th quadrennial presidential election, was held on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. Democratic Nominee John Kerry defeated incumbent Republican President George W Bush.

Bush and incumbent Vice President Dick Cheney were renominated by their party with no difficulty. Former Governor Howard Dean emerged as the early front-runner in the 2004 Democratic primaries, but Kerry won the first set of primaries in January 2004 and clinched his party's nomination in March after a series of primary victories. Kerry chose Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, who had himself sought the party's 2004 presidential nomination, to be his running mate.

After the September 11 attacks, Bush´s popularity had sky rocketed, but his popularity declined between 2001 and 2004. Throughout the election campaign, Economic Policy was the dominant theme, especially the 2000 early recession. Foreign policy was also debated including how Bush handled the war on terrorism and the aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Kerry won the election by a small margin taking 54% or 288 electoral votes.He swept the Northeastern United States and took the crucial swing states of of Ohio, Iowa and New Mexico. Some aspects of the election were subject to controversy but not to the same degree as seen in the 2000 election. Along with Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H W Bush, Bush is one of four incumbent presidents since World War II to be defeated in the general election.

Background[]

George W Bush won the presidency in 2000 after the Supreme Court's decision in Bush v. Gore remanded the case to the Florida Supreme Court, which declared there was not sufficient time to hold a recount without violating the U.S Constitution.

Just eight months into his presidency the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 suddenly transformed Bush into a wartime president. Bush's approval ratings surged to near 90% and within a month, the forces of a coalition led by the U.S entered Afghanistan, which had been sheltering the suspected mastermind of the September 11 attacks Osama Bin Laden. By December the Taliban had been removed but a lengthy reconstruction was to follow.

After this the bush administration turned its attention to Iraq, and argued the need to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq had become urgent. The Iraq issue gave Bush an antagonist to present to the people, (similar but different than that of 2001). Rallying support against a common enemy rather than gaining voters through ideas or policy. Among the stated reasons were that Saddam's regime had tried to acquire nuclear material and had not properly accounted for biological and chemical material it was known to have previously possessed. Both the possession of these weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and the failure to account for them, would violate the UN sanctions.The assumption about WMD was hotly advanced by the Bush administration from the beginning,But other mayor powers like France China,Germany and Russia remained unconvinced nd refused to allow passage of a UN Security Council resolution to authorize the use of force.Iraq permitted Un weapons inspectors to asses the WMD claim when the Bush administration decided to war without U.N authorization and told the inspectors to leave.The United States invaded Iraq on March 23 2003 together with a coalition which included troops from The United Kingdom and to a smaller extent Australia and Poland. Within about three weeks, the invasion caused the collapse of both the Iraqi government and its armed forces. However, the U.S. and allied forces failed to find any weapon of mass destruction in Iraq. Nevertheless on May 1, George W. Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, in a Lockheed S-3 Viking, where he gave a speech announcing the end of "major combat operations" in the Iraq War. In May, Bush´s approval ratings were at 66% according to a CNN–USA Today–Gallup poll. These high approval ratings would not last. First, while the war itself was popular in the U.S., the reconstruction and attempted "democratization" of Iraq lost some support as months passed and casualty figures increased, with no decrease in violence nor progress toward stability or reconstruction. Second, as investigators combed through the country, they failed to find the predicted WMD stockpiles, which led to debate over the rationale for the war.

Nominations[]

Democratic Nomination[]

John Kerry	John Edwards
Democratic Party Ticket, 2004
for President	for Vice President

U.S. Senator from Massachusetts (1985–2005)	U.S. Senator from North Carolina (1999–2005)
Campaign

Super Tuesday[]

in March´s Super Tuesday,Kerry won decisive victories in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and Rhode Island primaries as well as in the Minnesota caucuses.Even though he had withdrawn from the race two weeks earlier, Dean won his home state of Vermont.in Georgia Edwards finished only slightly behind Kerry but after having failed to win any other state then South Carolina, he chose to withdraw from the presidential race. Sharpton followed suit a couple weeks later. Kusinich did not leave the race officially until July.

On the 6th of July Kerry selected Edwards as his running mate, shortly before the 2004 Democratic National Convention was held later that month in Boston. Heading into the convention, the Kerry/Edwards ticket unveiled its new slogan: a promise to make America "stronger at home and more respected in the world.After having accepted the nomination he began his speech with the line:"I, John Kerry, accept this nomination." He then later delivered the speech's most famous quote "the future doesn't belong to fear, it belongs to freedom."

Republican Nomination[]

George W. Bush	Dick Cheney
Republican Party Ticket, 2004
for President	for Vice President

43rd President of the United States (2001–2005)	46th Vice President of the United States (2001–2005)
Campaign
File:Bush2004.png

Bush's popularity rose as a wartime president, and he was able to ward off any serious challenge to the Republican nomination. Senator Lincoln Chafee from Rhode Island considered challenging Bush on an anti-war platform in New Hampshire, but decided not to run after the capture of Saddam Hussein in December 2003. On March 10, 2004, Bush officially reached the number of delegates needed to be nominated at the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City. He accepted the nomination on September 2, 2004, and retained Vice President Dick Cheney as his running mate. During the convention and throughout the campaign, Bush focused on two themes: defending America against terrorism and building an ownership society. Bush used populist ideals in an attempt to rally citizens behind him in a time of international terror. The ownership society included allowing people to invest some of their Social Security in the stock market, increasing home and stock ownership, and encouraging more people to buy their own health insurance.