Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '04 -- Later in November

I've been re-reading some Hunter S. Thompson, always good for the soul, and came across this. It was originally written for the 1972 election, but after changing the names to reflect the times, it is still 1000% true:

"The tragedy of all this is that John Kerry is one of the few men who've run for President of the United States in this century who really understands what a fantastic monument to all the best instincts of the human race this country might have been, if we could have kept it out of the hands of greedy little hustlers like George W. Bush.

Kerry made some stupid mistakes, but in context they seem almost frivolous compared to the things Bush does every day of his life, on purpose, as a matter of policy and a perfect expression of everything he stands for."

Indeed. Nothing else explains why a picture of a person windsurfing affected this election more than a picture of a hooded man with his genitals wired.