A moderate Democratic Senator, different ranking methods rate him between the 12th and 22nd most liberal Senator, he is in the center of the
Democratic Party. Voted for the Iraq War. During the
Democratic primary most people said they voted for him for no other reason than him being "electable". In exit polls 80% of the people who voted for Kerry said they were going on what they had seen on TV, 20% had actually researched all of the candidates. It was the opposite for Dean, 80% of the people who had voted for Howard Dean had researched all of the candidates. He was not a "
flip-flopper", he never changed his mind on an issue, but on many issues he was deliberately vague. Contrary to Republican propaganda he did have one consistent position on Iraq.
Even though Kerry was such a poor candidate, Bush won with the smallest margin of victory for a sitting president in U.S. history. Bush received 2.5% more than Kerry; the closest previous margin won by a sitting President was 3.2% for Woodrow Wilson in 1916.