All things considered, I think Harris actually ran a good campaign, especially given that she only had a few months to throw it together. She was positive, but also unafraid of dealing pointed jabs to Trump and his enablers, she was good at working a crowd and gladhanding, she laid out her policy goals in ways that were easy to understand.
But, what should she have done differently - put more distance between her and Biden, pour more money into GOTV efforts, talk Taylor Swift into doing a few campaign events for her?
I recognize that there’s relatively little a president or VP can do about inflation. That being said, she should have made it the centerpiece of her campaign - talking all about how she recognizes that it’s a serious problem and she will pull out all the stops to try to get it down if elected. She should also have made a huge focus on raising the minimum wage and doing everything to boost salaries and reduce costs. Even if she couldn’t do much about it, talking is half the battle. By talking a lot about it, she would give the image that she cares and that it’s of high priority to her.
Instead, it seems like the Ds kind of fled from that topic and instead touted jobs, the stock market, but tried to gloss over inflation and low wages.
She could have demonstrated better competency in dealing with the Southern Border - ultimately Biden had to lead the way on the immigration/border reform bill.
Ultimately, she came across as an empty suit, trying to message and signal in all directions for all things, without any true beliefs or personal inclinations. It’s just hard to be passionate about the Daughter of Man.
I can’t think of anything she could have done differently given the unbelievable situation she was in. I mean, she could, but it’s almost certainly 20-20 hindsight type stuff.
The only time Dems have beat Trump was when they did an actual real primary in 2020. A real primary allows the process to pick the best candidate and the time to calibrate more authentic positions to what the voters actually want. I don’t think that happened in 2016 where it felt pretty engineered to Clinton from the get go, and certainly not in 2024. You’re left with a candidate that’s not the best aligned with what people want.
I think she failed to emphasize relief to the lower class and rural folks, the immediate needs of the mouth-to-paycheck populace which is hardest hit by inflation and profitization of basic need commodities. In contrast, anti-immigration and protectionism rhetoric (from Trump) appeal to those same basic populist needs. Marketing herself to middle-class independents and soft-Republican swing-voters was outweighed by the sheer volume of working poor that just needed an immediate shiny thing to dangle in front of them in hope.
She couldn’t have done anything differently to win. A majority of Americans want to go down the authoritarian path. That’s the lesson here. Trump won because that’s who a majority of Americans want to lead the country. Let’s stop fooling ourselves that he doesn’t represent America, that America is different or better than this.
The problem was that as an intellectual herself, she counted on the American voter being reasonably smart and not vote for the carnie candidate. She forgot a basic rule: no one has ever lost money betting on the stupidity of the average American.
There’s no shortage of science demonstrating that the average level of rationality among the public is fairly low. Discounting that isn’t being an intellectual, it’s being a love and rainbows wishful dreamer. Which is cute and all but it ain’t realpolitik.
I think all blame here is on Biden and his enablers, for hiding his decline from the voting public and then saddling her with an abbreviated campaign still organized by Biden appointees.
To the extent that she participated in this deception to the American public, she faces some blame. But she had plenty of help.
I think the campaign did a decent job, but just couldn’t get the ball over the goal line. IMHO, Trump’s message and vision resonated better with American voters (in the right states) than hers did. It’s as simple as that, sadly.
I didn’t. Kamala is really smart and thinks logically. In fact, the problem for the voters may not be that she was a woman but that she was a (gasp) really smart woman. Too intimidating and suffers from the likability penalty
I can’t help thinking that she gets just 200K more votes in each of the swing states that she curbstomps Trump so maybe her strategy in WI, MI, PA, NC and GA had a flaw?
I think she ran a great campaign, especially given the circumstances, and I don’t think she could have changed the outcome. I don’t think another Democratic candidate would have changed it either. I think there’s a cultural illness in America on several fronts and this election was a reflection of that. I honestly wish it was as easy as “Harris sucks!” because then the answer is easy. I have no idea what the answer to the current situation is though.
Smart is that you take evidence and form theories that, if correct, would explain that evidence. Having theories that go against all evidence is not that.
Likewise, smart is accepting that your theories might be incorrect, and accounting for unexpected countercases and competitive theories. Blithely assuming the correctness of your own pet theory is, again, not that.
Yep. My best guess is that half the voters like the cut of Trump’s jib, and the other half just voted because of inflation.
…several posters upthread have said the government couldn’t do much about inflation, but I think several policies did manage to get it down close to ideal levels. What the administration couldn’t do, and would be ruinous to do, is bring prices back down. So it just seems to me her and Biden’s fate was sealed for something outside of their control.
Aside: I am going to take a break from politics for a while. As I think about all the corrupt people about to be rewarded with absolute power, and all the hard-working, principled people who may be about to find themselves in the dock, the anger and frustration is unbearable. I can’t watch this shit for 4 years.
In my opinion the main problem with the Harris campaign was that it was only three months long and she was the candidate of last resort. Had the Democratic Party accepted reality and convinced Biden to quit a long time ago, they could have run a proper primary and had longer to prep the heir apparent, whether or not it ended up being Harris.
There’s plenty of errors made since then - I still do not grasp why she didn’t do the Rogan show, but that’s just one little thing. But, really, it started with her being a relief pitcher brought into a game her team was already losing. If your team is losing 6-5 and you bring in Harris to pitch the ninth and give up one more run and lose 7-5, maybe you should be blaming the guys who lost the first eight innings.
It was pointed out after I wrote this that she failed to elucidate how she would be different, and that’s absolutely true - but, again, she didn’t have much time, did she? The DNC had to scramble just to change the signage.
She needed a better answer to how she would be different from Biden. Telling everyone it would just be more of the same was never going to win over anybody.