Kerry would have been better?
Kerry=Bush=McCain=Obama As an example the only significant difference would have been much screaming and crying coming from conservative republicans in the summer of 2005 when imported demilled firearms parts were banned had Kerry been in. Instead there was support for the action or it was ignored by individual conservative republicans and the groups they belong to. As near as I can tell (and no one can point me to a shindig that would suggest otherwise,) mainstream conservative republicans never were too upset with republican spending (up to and including the fall 2008 bailouts) to organize themselves in to a Tea Party "protest."
Further (the last time I checked) Bush wasn't running against Kerry in the 2004 primaries either. Appreciative conservative republican voters rewarded him with their support in the primaries and again in the general election. It would be safe to assume that if by chance, Bush and the other favorites had been unable to continue to the 2000 general election and the nominee had ended up being Keyes, Smith, Buchanan, or Dornan, the republican general election vote tally that year would likely have been less than 5 million with the majority of conservative republican voters just staying home or voting democrat.
