Reply #36: I agree with that. However, more and more I think I agree

[AP]

(as noted above) that if you did run this election over and over again, even if you change one or two things for any candidate, it still would have come out exactly as it did.

I really think that informed voter study says everything you need to know. Sure Edwards had the best return on his investment, and the steepest slope in the last few days of all the early primaries, but Kerry would always have been Mr slow-and-steady, well-rounded, with almost limitless resources and the shrewdest campaign staff, and a ton of the kind of experience that's necessary to win (ie, biography+actual political savy).

I guess I'm surprised that more people didn't realize early that Edwards was going to be the second last man standing, but I'm not suprised that Kerry won, and if the primaries were groundhog's day, I think, yes, they would come out just like they did every time, even with minor changes.