Moral issues came out as the top issue, but war on terror was second and Bush whipped Kerry on Both. I can't help but think Kerry's equivocating on Iraq came across to many as snake oil salemanship and the resulting lack of trust contibuted to the butt kicking he received on both issues. But then that was my reaction and I have no strong opinion on the gay marriage issue. I find myself troubled by the consequences of banning or allowing both abortion and gay marriage.

Personally I think it was a lot of stupid choices in campaign topics from AWOL, Kerry as war hero, to a drop in a bucket of weapons missing instead of hammering Bush on real significant failures that cost Kerry the election. There were too many real issues that a huge campaign war chest could have been spent on spotlighting instead of these stupid issues. The unfairness of many of these attacks probably backfired with their impact on independant voters like me and by energizing Bush's base. Bush was very beatable by many historical measures. One ace Bush had was war time president. Kerry royally flubbed any attempt to undercut that one major advantage.

CNN also brought up the JJ SB incident as a motivator on the morals issue.

Regards,
Mark