So what went wrong for the Democrats? Lots of things, some of them are ones that I have talked about before. There is a lot to cover so this might ramble a bit.

Kerry was a bad candidate. I'm not sure that a good candidate was in the race since it came down to two senators and a crazed governor. I think that the good candidates were scared off by Bush's approval ratings in 2002.

The primaries hurt Kerry. He won too easily. Iowa was the only state that he had to fight for.

The press went too easy on Kerry. If the press had been doing their job and the primaries hadn't been bunched up, the SwiftVets' story would have broken in the middle of the primaries. Kerry might have survived it. If he did, it would have been old news by August. If he didn't survive it then the Democrats would have had time to select a different standard bearer. Instead the story didn't break until August and Kerry's campaign never recovered.

Kerry won the nomination on little more than 3 months spent in Viet Nam and a promise to beat Bush in the debates. Kerry never had a vision nor did he inspire much personal enthusiasm. The reasoning was that it would be enough for him to be "not Bush" and to look presidential.

Senators have trouble running for President. Senators don't show much leadership. Instead they compromise a lot and have long voting records. That's why most Presidents have been governors or generals.

Kerry specifically and the Left in general have a lot of trouble with religion. When asked about religion, Kerry kept talking about being an altar boy. That tells us how he was raised, not what he believes. When asked about abortion he said that he believes that life starts at conception but that he would not impose his views on others. This rings false - when else has Kerry said that he would act against his beliefs. Dean had even more trouble here. A Christian with a Jewish wife and kids, he forgot that the Book of Job is Old testament.

The Left treats religion the way that Europeans do. Most European countries are either Catholic or Protestant. Which ever they are, the majority is all the same denomination. Everyone pays lip service to religion but no one actually acts like he believes in it. Around 20 years ago the Church of England created a bishop who openly questions the divinity of Christ, something that would seem to be a job requirement.

Bush, like much of "red" America, is religious and acts on it. He does not think that God is telling him what to do but that is what the Left hears when Bush talks about praying for guidance. I know lots of religious people who pray for guidance and none of them think that they are God's special messengers.

The Left needs to come to terms with its fear of Christianity. In the meantime, both protestants and Catholics favored Bush over Kerry.

Kerry is from New England. That hurts because it conjures up images of rich, condescending snobs. Southern Democrats do a better job of passing for real people. They also tend to be more moderate.

The Democrats need to come to terms with being liberals. I heard both Kerry and Edwards reply to questions about their liberal voting record by saying, "I don't believe in labels." They were obviously coached on what to say. It is a bad thing when the liberal party's candidates cannot admit to being liberal.

Just as Reagan defined a new breed of conservative, Democrats need a new breed of liberal. Reagan stood for a strong America that was less intrusive. Democrats do not have a core philosophy to match Reagan and their intellectuals don't even like America.

Kerry never figured out what to do about Iraq. His plan for bringing in foreign troops to die in place of Americans never got off the ground and he refused to say what else he would do. The Democrats in general are a worse mess. Many of them hate the war. Kerry didn't want to offend them so he backed off his early proposals for sending in 40,000 more troops.

Kerry wanted to be the next JFK but, where Kennedy was young, warm, and energetic, Kerry was old, cold, and aloof.

Michelle Malkin posted a map that she got from USA Today. Go look at it. It shows voting by county. It is staggering. The whole country is red except for a few blue dots, mainly around population centers.