Who lost the Election?

I've said to a number of people recently that I thought John Kerry was the wrong choice for the Democratic Presidential nomination. I stand by that, because Kerry is, well, a jackass. I've also said that if the Democrats had selected just about anyone else, they could've beaten Bush. Perhaps I was a bit hasty in making that assertion. As Joel argues, it probably wouldn't have made much difference who they nominated:

John Kerry did not lose the election, the democratic party's message did. It lost the election in rural America where the vast majority of "the middle class" lives. The democratic party spent 2 years talking about changing America for "the middle class" and "most Americans", but only won in high-density urban areas.

An extremely good point. After reading this, I was reminded that John Edwards did not help the Dems carry South Carolina. In fact, it wasn't even close.
The Dems chose Edwards partly because they thought his life story would resonate with working-class voters. It did not. When a candidate cannot carry his own state, there is something seriously wrong. In contrast, Cheney's homestate of Wyoming was won handily by Bush.

Perhaps all of this is just banter, but I like what Joel concludes with:

If you want to change America, you need to start with your party - it's in trouble. It's in trouble because the party message does not reflect what most people value.

A bold statement, and definitely true.