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With national security as an important issue in the campaign, the Democratic Party soon discarded the initial front-runner, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, in favor of Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran who later became a strong critic of that war.
Bush framed his campaign around the issue of national security, presenting himself as a decisive leader. His spin doctors contrasted Bush with Kerry, who was labeled as a "flip-flopper." The intention was to have voters believe that Bush could be trusted to be tough on terrorism while Kerry would be uncertain in the face of danger. The Bush campaign also tried to portray Kerry as a "Massachusetts liberal", who was out of touch with mainstream Americans. Kerry campaigned on the slogan "Stronger at home, respected in the world," meaning that he intended to pay more attention to domestic concerns, while rehabilitating the nation's image among its allies, which was damaged after Bush decided to proceed against Iraq unilaterally, without United Nations support or the support of many of America's allies. Kerry attempted to capitalize on Bush's dwindling popularity to rally anti-war sentiment. His campaign also sought to portray Bush as unintelligent.
Kerry's campaign also attacked Bush's character and events from his past. Bush was accused of failing to fulfill his required service in the Texas Air National Guard. But soon the focus shifted to the conduct of CBS News after they aired a segment on 60 Minutes Wednesday, introducing what became known as the Killian documents. When it was alleged that these documents were not authentic, CBS appointed a review panel that eventually resulted in the firing of the news producer and the demotion of anchor Dan Rather.
Three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate were organized by the Commission on Presidential Debates, and held over a two week period from September 30 to October 13 of 2004. At the first of these debates, Libertarian Party candidate Michael Badnarik and Green Party candidate David Cobb were arrested while trying to access the debates.
The first debate was held on September 30 at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. Jim Lehrer of PBS was the moderator. The debate was intended to focus on foreign policy. At the debate Kerry accused Bush of having failed to gain international support for the invasion of Iraq, saying the only countries assisting the U.S. during the invasion were the United Kingdom and Australia. Bush replied to this by saying, "Well, actually, he forgot Poland." It was not one of Bush's best nights on the debate stage and he appeared to be very much on the defensive. A consensus among mainstream pollsters and pundits was that Kerry won the debate decisively. His campaign had its share of troubles up to that point as the flip-flopper label had begun to stick. Kerry's debate performance injected some recovery into what had come to be seen as a weak and troubled campaign. Subsequent news coverage of the debate focused on Bush's apparent annoyance with Kerry, much as had been the case with Al Gore four years earlier. New reports of the debate pointed out numerous scowls and angry facial expressions on the part of Bush. 62.4 million viewers tuned in for the debate.
On October 5, the vice presidential debate between Cheney and Edwards. The debate was largely seen as a draw, with ABC indicated a victory for Cheney, while polls by CNN and MSNBC gave it to Edwards. Only 43.5 million viewers watched this debate, which was held at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and moderated by CNN's Gwen Ifill.
The second presidential debate was conducted in a town meeting format and was held at Washington University in St. Louis. Charles Gibson of ABC News was the moderator. Bush and Kerry took questions on a variety of subjects from a local audience. Bush was aware that much had been made of his scowling in the first debate and attempted to deflect criticism of it with humor. At one point he quipped in response to one of Kerry's remarks, "That answer made me want to scowl." Viewership had dropped off from the first debate to an estimated 46.7 million viewers.
Bush and Kerry met for the third and final debate on October 13, held at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. Bon Schiffer of CBS News was the moderator. 51.1 million viewers watched the final debate. During the debate, John Kerry, responding to a question about gay rights, and reminded the audience that Vice President Cheney's daughter was a lesbian. After the debate, Cheney responded with a statement calling himself "a pretty angry father" and was very upset overKerry using Cheney's daughter's sexual orientation for his political purposes.
The consensus was that Kerry has out-performed Bush in the debates and the polls tended to support this conclusion. Polls taken by Gallup found that Kerry pulled ahead in October, but the race was still a close one. That would all change as the result of a subsequent "October surprise." On October 27, 2004, Osama bin Laden, the terrorist responsible for the September 11th attacks, who was still at large, released a video in which he claimed responsibility for the 9/11 attacks and called President Bush a dictator who repressed freedom by means of the Patriot Act. The release of the video worked to Bush's advantage, as he was perceived by more voters to be the candidate better able to deal with the issue of terrorist attacks. The video reignited public interest in national security. By targeting Bush for criticism, Bin Laden cast him in the role of his enemy, causing many undecided voters to support their President. In the days following the video's release, Bush had a lead over Kerry in the polls that increased by several points.
On election day Bush received 62,040,610 popular votes (50.7%) compared to Kerry's 59,028,444 (48.3%). Bush won 286 electoral votes, while Kerry won 251. Bush carried 31 states, to 19 (plus the District of Columbia) for Kerry. Bush's margin of victory in the popular vote was the smallest ever for a reelected incumbent president. The electoral map closely resembled that of 2000, with only three states changing sides: New Mexico and Iowa voted Republican in 2004 after having voted Democratic in 2000, while New Hampshire voted Democratic in 2004 after previously voting Republican.
