2004 was a very close election, and Kerry was close to winning over Bush. Perhaps this is a dead horse topic, but I'm in a spoony mood.
Now, '04 had quite a few ramifications, notably Bush was still President and pursued the policies he ended up pursuing, and Bush had a second term in which his popularity plummeted (and I remember being around and '04 and Bush starting to lose popularity, and polarizingly so, so it wasn't something that just started in his second term). And, at least from many things I've heard, we in the US started to lose (or lose more) support among the world since they thought 2000 was just a fluke, so there was no way that'd happen again...and then Bush was reelected. However, because Bush and the Republicans were still in power during that second term. and because of the recession and ire against GOP policies, the Democrats swept into power in 2008. Obama became President, and the Democrats gained control of Congress. But, that also had the consequence of backlash; the GOP regained the House in 2010, the Tea Baggers came into existence and prominence, Washington became polarized and dysfunctional like nothing seen before in modern American history, etc.
But what if Kerry had won election in 2004? It wouldn't be the same clean sweep as 2008, nor would it have the same circumstances. The US was not the same mess it was in 2008, and we had only been at war a few years, and the House and Senate would still be GOP controlled. But what would happen if Kerry had been in the White House at least from 2005-2009?