Breakdown of election 2004: Bush v. Kerry

Cari P.

Order the writing of a tailor-made Political science Term papers

Free quote online

Thesis Format .doc

Breakdown of election 2004: Bush v. Kerry

Download

Read an extract

Reader
Abstract
Contents
Extract

Abstract

On November 2, 2004 almost 120 million voters cast ballots for President of the United States. Just fewer than 60% of the population let their voices be heard in one of the most controversial and closest elections in history (Electoral Results). The phrase characterizing this election, "too close to call" could not have been more accurate. Both candidates, Republican, President George W. Bush, and Democrat, Senator John Kerry, hit the campaign trail running and did not finish, as in the case of Senator Kerry, until the morning of the election. Poll after poll projected the two men neck and neck. And even the television stations were cautious of announcing who had won each state until every last ballot had been counted. In this election, every voice truly mattered. And at the end of the following day, George W. Bush with a 51% majority of the popular vote and 286 electoral votes was announced the winner and his team of associates and advisors began preparing for their second term in office.

Introduction.
The main voter base for the Republican Party.
An interesting element of the delegation of votes.
1. A similar story for why Bush won Florida.
2. An obvious congruency between class bias and voter turnout.
3. More people who consider themselves Democrats rather than Republicans.
The Democrats.
1. Hot button issues.
2. The issue of gay marriage taken to a national level.
3. Democrats - in favor of gay marriages.
4. The Democrats need to pull out strong on the third most important issue of terrorism.
Conclusion.

Get this table of contents for free after login.

Extract

[...] It is impossible for the American people to get behind a plan that is not there, and to trust in a President whom they do not believe has a clear idea of how to keep them safe. This issue combined with the morality topic was where Senator Kerry took the largest hit. This election will go down in history, almost as famous as the election of 2000 where President Bush squeezed out his first narrow victory. Although this race was close, not too many things could have changed its outcome. [...]

[...] When gay marriage was brought to the front of this race, John Kerry was forced to take a stand, the liberal stand. Democrats are in favor of gay marriage s or at least civil unions, but this issue divided the country, as one could see in the days that followed the election where eleven states banned either gay marriages or civil unions or both, and led to John Kerry's downfall. A parallel can be drawn. “Liberals once lost elections for supporting civil rights as well and now look back on those losses as badges of honor. [...]

[...] Just two days before the election Bush flew into Gainsville, Florida where he spoke in front of 17,000 people from nearby rural communities, putting him well on his way to beating Kerry in this state by 318,000 votes (Farhi). Another contributing factor as to why Bush was able to pull out a victory in Florida has to do with the many hurricanes that hit the state early in the season. As President, George Bush was able to pour money into the state making himself look good in the eyes of needy residents. [...]

[...] Voters were impressed with his ideas for the economy and he won on that issue by and astounding 80% to 18%. But something else went wrong for the Democratic Party. Although before the election the economy along with war in Iraq and terrorism were looked at as the top issues, things began to change when the Bush Administration took the issue of gay marriage to a national level and then the race took a turn for the worst for John Kerry after the third presidential debate. [...]

[...] Both candidates put a lot of time, money, and effort into campaigning in these states and reaching every voter, but in the case of Ohio, Bush was able to pull out a victory based on the rural voter turn out. The Bush campaign put enormous amounts of effort into both reaching rural voters and bringing them out to the polls mainly because Senator Kerry was predicted to and indeed did take a lot of votes in the precincts near the larger cities. knew the emphasis was going to be on turnout,' said Bob Paduchik, the Ohio manager for Bush's campaign. ‘That's why our plan emphasized the grass roots and the ground game. We were always thinking about personal contact. [...]

doc