Distribution of votes in the 2004 US presidential election

The 2004 US presidential election was contested by incumbent President George W. Bush of the Republican Party, and John Kerry of the Democratic Party. The US' political landscape had changed drastically since the 2000 election, following the September 11 attacks in 2001, and the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq dominated the campaigns. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were re-nominated for the Republican ticket with no opposition, as his response following the 9/11 attacks and his role as a wartime president caused his popularity to soar. The Democratic nomination was contested by a number of candidates, with Howard Dean seen as the frontrunner in the beginning of the race, before Kerry emerged as the surprise victor following the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary. Kerry then went on to win the Democratic nomination comfortably, and named Senator John Edwards at the 2004 Democratic National Convention (the DNC also featured a keynote address from the little-known US Senate candidate, Barack Obama).CampaignThroughout the campaign, Bush drew focus for his foreign policy record and to matters of national security, while also claiming that his opponent would be weak in this regard. To counter this, Kerry ran with the slogan "stronger at home, respected in the world" which suggested that Bush was weak on domestic issues and that the US had lost some of its standing in the international community due to the fallout of the War on Terror. When CBS News introduced the Killian Documents; a series of papers that claimed Bush had not fulfilled his required service in the Texas Air National Guard. The legitimacy of these papers was widely doubted in the run-up to election day, and they failed to derail Bush's campaign. Kerry's military record also came under scrutiny, when a group of veterans who had served with the nominee in Vietnam came forward and claimed that he had exaggerated or lied about his service in the war. These claims damaged Kerry's ratings, however strong performances in the televised debates brought things much closer as the election drew nearer. A video of Osama Bin Laden emerged four days before the election, where he talked about the 9/11 attacks and taunted Bush; this video then boosted Bush's popularity, as the many felt the need to rally behind their President once more.ResultsThe election was close, but not as close as the previous election. Bush won a majority in both the electoral vote and popular vote, taking 53 and 51 percent respectively. Kerry took the remainder of the electoral votes, and 48.3 percent of the popular vote, while the remainder of the popular vote was spread among several third party candidates.

2004年美国总统选举由时任共和党总统乔治·W·布什与民主党候选人约翰·克里展开竞争。自2000年选举以来，美国政治格局因2001年9月11日的恐怖袭击及其引发的阿富汗和伊拉克战争而发生剧变。布什总统及其副总统迪克·切尼在共和党内无对手的情况下被重新提名，鉴于他在9/11事件后的回应及其作为战时总统的角色，其人气急剧上升。民主党提名过程竞争激烈，霍华德·迪恩在初选中被视为领跑者，但在爱荷华州党团会议和新罕布什尔州初选中，克里以黑马姿态脱颖而出，成为令人意外的胜利者。克里在2004年民主党全国代表大会（民主党全国代表大会还邀请了当时并不知名的美国参议院候选人巴拉克·奥巴马发表主题演讲）上轻松赢得了民主党提名，并提名参议员约翰·爱德华兹为副总统候选人。在整个竞选过程中，布什因其外交政策记录和国家安全问题而备受关注，同时宣称其对手在此方面将会显得软弱。为应对此挑战，克里以“国内更强，世界尊重”的口号参选，暗示布什在国内外政策上的不足，以及美国因反恐战争的余波而在国际社会中的地位有所下降。当哥伦比亚广播公司新闻曝光了一系列所谓布什在德克萨斯州国民警卫队服役未达标的文件——基林文件时，这些文件的合法性在选举前夕受到广泛质疑，并未对布什的竞选造成阻碍。克里的军事记录也受到审查，当一群曾在越南与提名者共事的退伍军人站出来声称克里在战争中的服役经历夸大或撒谎时，这些指控损害了克里的形象。然而，在电视辩论中的出色表现使得选举结果在临近选举日时更加接近。在选举前四天，奥萨马·本·拉登的一段视频曝光，他在视频中谈论了9/11袭击事件并嘲讽布什，这一视频随后提升了布什的受欢迎程度，许多人再次团结在总统周围。结果方面，这次选举虽然竞争激烈，但并未像上次选举那样接近。布什在选举人票和普选票中均获得多数，分别占53%和51%。克里获得了剩余的选举人票和48.3%的普选票，而剩余的普选票则分散在几个第三方候选人之间。