# Who could have won? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump, kamala-harris\ **Created:** [November 7, 2024, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-could-have-won/1009829 "2024-11-07T01:00:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2024, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-could-have-won/1009829/1 "2024-11-07T01:00:59Z")
You are able to project to the DNC leadership including Biden on Jan 1 2024 an absolute dread certainty that Trump will win against Biden in the EC and popular vote. Kamala too if you believe she wouldn’t have had a chance even with a full year run up. Who could they have pulled/pushed in that could have won? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2024, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-could-have-won/1009829/2 "2024-11-07T01:02:02Z")
Joe Biden. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2024, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-could-have-won/1009829/3 "2024-11-07T01:34:15Z")
The Democrats lost the White House, lost the Senate and when all the votes are counted, will fall further behind in the House. My guess is no one. ---
**Author:** ![Disinfectus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/disinfectus/32/11085_2.png) [@Disinfectus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disinfectus)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2024, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-could-have-won/1009829/4 "2024-11-07T02:10:00Z")
Well, that’s the million dollar question, isn’t it. As much as I hate to say it, a bipartisanly-beloved male celebrity might have had a chance. America is so damn superficial, and someone with the ability to act might have been able to convince enough people. We love our celebrities. I don’t know who that is though. And yes, I know how cynical that sounds. And people will say, “yeah, but we need someone with political experience.” Trump had none before 2016. On the job training. I also wonder if Michelle Obama would have done better than Harris. She was the less qualified of the two, but perhaps better respected by at least half of the population. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2024, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-could-have-won/1009829/5 "2024-11-07T02:16:46Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Joe Biden. That’s possible, for the same reasons he succeeded four years ago. He manages to appeal to the working class perhaps similar to Trump. (And the choice would be between one senile old white guy or another.) ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2024, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-could-have-won/1009829/6 "2024-11-07T02:22:30Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Joe Biden. Do you mean a _younger version_ of Joe Biden? If so, I think you may be right. But I read some polling data the day or so before the election that if Biden were still running, he would have been seven points below Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2024, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-could-have-won/1009829/7 "2024-11-07T02:26:02Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Joe Biden. If you mean the 81-year old version of Biden, absolutely not. He was cratering in the polls against Trump after that disastrous June debate. Kamala managed to keep it close; Biden would have been utterly routed. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2024, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-could-have-won/1009829/8 "2024-11-07T02:26:45Z")
If the race was lost mostly due to inflation, then no one. If there was a significant element of sexism and racism, then perhaps some of the guys she considered as running mates might have pulled it off. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2024, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-could-have-won/1009829/9 "2024-11-07T02:27:07Z")
I don’t see how a Democrat could have won this time around. Right or wrong much of the voting public is convinced the economy is in the toilet and illegal immigrants are flooding over the border. Neither of these are issues any Democrat I know of could have overcome. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2024, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-could-have-won/1009829/10 "2024-11-07T02:30:58Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > My guess is no one. I agree. It just wasn’t close enough for candidate identity to realistically change the result. In 2020, I was hoping Biden would pick Val Demings for VP. I think she would have been a stronger candidate than Harris, but still not strong enough. Maybe Demings, plus Trump not getting shot, would have been enough. In theory, I think Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a centrist who looks like she will again win her Republican district in Washington State, would have beat Trump. But she is too much of a centrist to realistically become a Democratic nominee. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2024, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-could-have-won/1009829/11 "2024-11-07T02:33:17Z")
> [@Disinfectus](#): > > I also wonder if Michelle Obama would have done better than Harris. IMHO, she would have had the best chance starting from Biden dropping out. And enough of a chance to worry me if starting from the beginning. But she’s only the best I’m aware of, not being familiar with the entire democratic stable. I’m interested if there would have been someone better. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2024, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-could-have-won/1009829/12 "2024-11-07T02:35:43Z")
Questions like this (along with the question of whose fault it was) are going to eat up the Democratic Party. There’s going to be a _lot_ of infighting. I wonder who is going to be the new leader of the party? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2024, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-could-have-won/1009829/13 "2024-11-07T02:40:27Z")
A hate-filled egotistical maniac with a amiable personality and absolutely no regard for the truth might have had a chance…but unfortunately most of them turned out to be on the Right. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2024, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-could-have-won/1009829/14 "2024-11-07T02:45:13Z")
Well, I think it’s very hard to separate the candidate from the campaign. A complete outsider with a campaign staff that isn’t Joe Biden’s might have had a shot if they ran on a strong platform of change and a break from the past. But running on a status quo platform (with very minor sops of policy change) when a vast majority of the electorate thinks the country is on the wrong track is not something that can be overcome with just a better candidate. For some reason the DNC seemed to think that if they could just say often and forcefully enough that everything was actually fine that the voters would believe it and vote to keep them in power. It was almost enough, sort of, but only because Trump is such an odious character. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2024, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-could-have-won/1009829/15 "2024-11-07T02:49:40Z")
Saying “Everything’s fine” isn’t what the Democrats said, though-It is what the Republicans repeatedly _said_ the Democrats said, thus creating a powerful straw man the Democrats spent too much time fighting. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2024, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-could-have-won/1009829/16 "2024-11-07T02:53:11Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Saying “Everything’s fine” isn’t what the Democrats said If you say so. I went to Harris website many times, and I never saw any policy proposals there. The only things I even remember he promoting were housing credits that were laughably limited (first-time buyers, with small limits), student loan forgiveness (which vast majorities hate), and no taxes on tips (copied from Trump). Look, I know I’m coming off like a bitter a-hole, I’m sorry. But the primary message I took away, as a died-in-the-wool Democrat, was “you better vote for Harris” or Trump will take us backwards. Hell, her primary slogan was “we aren’t going back”. That is an explicitly backwards-looking message, with the unstated premise that things are better now than they were four years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2024, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-could-have-won/1009829/17 "2024-11-07T02:55:11Z")
> [@Jas09](#): > > If you say so. I went to Harris website many times, and I never saw any policy proposals there. Why is a lack of policy proposals from Harris an issue when Trump never got specific (except that tariffs are going to fix everything)? ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2024, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-could-have-won/1009829/18 "2024-11-07T02:56:28Z")
Because Trump wasn’t trying to convince democrats to get out and vote. Kamala was. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2024, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-could-have-won/1009829/19 "2024-11-07T02:59:58Z")
> [@Jas09](#): > > Well, I think it’s very hard to separate the candidate from the campaign. A complete outsider with a campaign staff that isn’t Joe Biden’s might have had a shot if they ran on a strong platform of change and a break from the past. Yes, but this is very hard to do when you are running on the same party line as the incumbent president. Also, since the U.S. is a center-right country (not saying yesterday, but usually), the strong platform of change has to be to the right of the incumbent administration. That’s why I suggested a Democratic House member from a district that votes for Trump. But those House members only remain in Congress by adapting positions unpopular in the party at large. If not for his stroke, I would say Senator Fetterman. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2024, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-could-have-won/1009829/20 "2024-11-07T03:00:34Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Why is a lack of policy proposals from Harris an issue when Trump never got specific (except that tariffs are going to fix everything)? Specificity isn’t the point! The point is ideas. Change. A reason to support something. As stupid as “Drain the Swamp” is, at least it means something. As idiotic as 20% blanket tariffs are, at least it’s change. “Build the Wall”. “Close the Border”. These are significant changes to the status quo, even if they aren’t specific. And then, brilliantly, in areas where the GOP literally has no ideas (health care) he just punted (“concepts of a plan”) which clearly signaled to independent voters “don’t worry, I won’t mess with Obamacare”. Cede the ground where you are weak and hammer the ground where you are strong. I want Democrats to come up with some stupid, pie-in-the-sky ideas. Give me Medicare for All, or complete repeal of the income tax for low earners, or 50% tax rates on incomes over a million, or term limits for Supreme Court Justices. Make the GOP explain why “the swamp” doesn’t include SCOTUS. Make them defend low tax rates for billionaires. Make them explain why old people get good health care but young men don’t. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-could-have-won/1009829.md?page=2)