I don't have the answers, I'm just giving my ten cents like you and everyone else. But I don't think there was necessarily anything BAD about Kerry and Gore, in my opinion. And even if you saw it that way... who would you rather see in the White House today, Kerry or Bush? To borrow some laughs from South Park for a moment, even if one is a douche and the other a turd sandwich, which is the lesser of two evils to you?
As for people's hearts not being in the elections... when Gore lost, I think a lot of people's hearts were in it, the guy after all did also win the popular vote if only by a little. That's a lot of people who care. Gore should have won.
Kerry didn't, because he wasn't that great of a public speaker, was a bit slow in defending himself, and he had a hard time getting his message out to people on the fence. But to someone who maybe isn't so obsessed with public image, like myself, I don't really care if other people didn't like him because he didn't look, talk and act "presidential enough", I think he had some good ideas and he was a better bet than George W. Bush. And that's good enough for me. This isn't fucking American Idol. You take your chances just like anything else in life.