The Coyne post brought a damning statistic from another exit poll: 80% of Bush voters said they voted for their candidate, rather than against the other one. Barely a third of Kerry voters said the same.
A big problem with the election is that voters didn’t find Kerry to be a compelling candidate.
I’m not sure I’d ascribe that difference primarily to the characteristics of the candidates. To the extent that the emerging stereotypes of the Republican base as less educated and more faith-based, and the Democratic base as more highly educated and issue-oriented, I think we can say that Democrats are less likely to follow anyone blindly or view any candidate as an untarnished hero. Kerry’s base thinks in terms of the lesser of evils, while Bush’s thinks of good vs. evil.