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Huffington Post: Kamala Harris Campaign Aides Suggest Campaign Was Just Doomed
Senior advisers to Vice President Kamala Harris’ failed presidential campaign suggested this week that there just wasn’t much else Harris could have done to beat Donald Trump.
Harris couldn’t have distanced herself from President Joe Biden, they said, because she was loyal. She couldn’t have responded more forcefully to attacks over trans rights, because doing so would have been playing Trump’s game.
And she might not have had much chance of winning anyway, given the deficit she inherited from Biden when he dropped out of the race in July.
“We were hopeful. I don’t know how optimistic we were, but we thought, OK, this is tied, and if a couple things break our way [we could win],” David Plouffe, a senior adviser to the campaign, said Tuesday on the “Pod Save America” podcast in a joint interview with fellow Harris campaign alums Jen O’Malley Dillon, Quentin Fulks and Stephanie Cutter.
More: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kamala-harris-campaign-polls_n_67462013e4b0fffc5a469baf?ef
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Groundhawg
(1,218 posts)
Prairie Gates
(8,157 posts)Honestly, the things was dead from go. Many of us said it, but we only said it once.
Scrivener7
(59,522 posts)But then I saw the enthusiasm for her and I was so happy that I was wrong.
But I wasn't wrong.
LisaL
(47,423 posts)She never polled better than Biden as far as I could tell, which is why it made no sense for the party to demand that Biden stepped down so close to the election. I always felt it was a very stupid thing to do.
MustLoveBeagles
(16,411 posts)I just hated how it all went down.
Jack Valentino
(5,023 posts)where she DID poll better than Biden--- maybe two--- in that time before he withdrew from the race.
(None of those showed her tied or leading, but she did 3 or 4 points better than Joe. Sorry I can't cite them
at this late date, but I know what I read, and I'm a poll-reading wh*re, pardon the expression please)
I was against President Biden withdrawing from the race, vehemently--
but once he made the decision, and endorsed Kamala,
I was all-in for VP Harris---
and glad that Joe screwed over all the pundits who wanted to "create"
some kind of "after the primaries PRIMARY" out of thin air,
with his swift endorsement of VP Kamala Harris....
I think they all wanted to bypass Harris, which would have been a huge insult
to African-American women-- the single largest voting constituency of the Democratic party.
No "white knight" male nominee would have done better than her,
under those circumstances.
The_Counsel
(1,757 posts)to African-American women-- the single largest voting constituency of the Democratic party.
Yup.
And had they done that, Harris loses bigger than she had. Way bigger.
It’s bad enough that there were a few million White WOMEN voters out there who didn’t think a woman should be President. I don’t get it either, but here we are….
yardwork
(69,364 posts)I'm a white lesbian and I don't get it. I live in a blue bubble and almost all of my friends, neighbors, relatives and co-workers are Democrats. Outside this bubble, there's a vast swath of weird white Republicans. I'm white and I don't understand. I feel as if I missed school the day they handed out the brainwashing potion.
Polybius
(21,902 posts)Before he dropped out, Trump was up by as much as 5 points nationality. Even NY was in single digits.
Walleye
(44,807 posts)
CrispyQ
(40,970 posts)didn't translate into votes. 
I defended Joe to the end & was disgusted at how he was treated publicly, but I even at that time I thought he was going to lose. The media was never going to get over his appearance at the debate with Trump. No one talked about the substance of the debate, only how bad Biden looked. Then people rallied around Harris & she kicked Trump's butt in her debate & I thought, we have this. But even up to the very end, her campaign said it was going to be close. I also put too much on that Iowa poll & Simon Rosenberg's polling analysis. I can't believe all the countries that have had female leaders before the US. 
LisaL
(47,423 posts)All the recent elections were close.
Marigold
(230 posts)But like you, I saw the enthusiasm and thought maybe I was wrong. I should have known better.
Arazi
(8,887 posts)I too was one of the few here who were dismayed at Joe being forced out.
Nobody in my pro-choice activist group was happy at all when the news came out.
Love Kamala Harris. Proudly voted for her but my deep unease never went away
😞
LisaL
(47,423 posts)But forcing a president out of the race so close to the election never made any sense to me. What was the party trying to accomplish by doing that?
Blue_Tires
(57,596 posts)When almost all the Senate Dems were PUBLICLY calling for Biden to drop and multiple high profile donors were PUBLICLY talking about not donating, there was no other choice...
I wanted Biden to stay the course because as I screamed on Twitter for months: 1. The media was immediately going to drop the issues of age and mental decline in presidential candidates after Biden dropped out instead of concentrating on Donnie and 2. Deep down I didn't trust Dem voters (especially white Dem voters) to actually show up vote for a black woman even after saying they would in the polls...
The_Counsel
(1,757 posts)What were they trying to accomplish?
They were trying to pull out a win that was slipping away.
Even before the much-lamented June debate (which I feel was planned so early on purpose), Biden was polling worse than an accomplished incumbent should. Especially one who had already beaten Trump once. If BIDEN can’t win under the circumstances, are we sure anyone could if we’re being honest? Trump was the worst candidate we’ve ever seen—after having been the worst PRESIDENT we’ve ever seen—and this thing was STILL CLOSE? That’s the part I can’t seem to wrap my mind around. I mean, seriously…what the hell are we doing here…? 
DeepWinter
(931 posts)She has never been popular. In 2020 she dropped out of the Primaries because she had less than 1% support, and that was from Democrats. She had pretty marginal/unremarkable polling as VP. Then when Bident completely caught us off guard and dropped out, no Democrat had the opportunity to vote for a replacement, she was simply pushed forward. THAT didn't sit well with Democrats either. (See DU posting that week, yesh... and DU was kind compared to other Liberal sites)
By no fault of her own, she was placed in a terrible position at the last minute.
stopdiggin
(15,463 posts)That is and was the overriding factor in this election. And you cannot 'distance' yourself (brain dead proposition to start with) - without alienating the HELL out large swaths of major constituencies, donors, party and party faithful - and on ... You can pretty much name it. So - you play the hand you're dealt .. and there wasn't a lot of other options in this deck.
MacKasey
(1,519 posts)But I would have made an actual to do list that was updated daily, it was a great idea but it needed to be be on tictoc , YouTube daily
Do Perot like commercials with charts to show The Biden/Harris accomplishes, or. School house rock videos to explain Tariffs.
Get a little Toto dog (cairn terrier) for her to go witch hunting
Should have went to McDonald's the first time it was mentioned and did the fries
Before 45
And maybe even go on Joe Rogen
I'm being a little silly, but I have been so angry, I need to control my blood pressure
LymphocyteLover
(9,848 posts)and go after Trump and respond to the Trump campaign attacks
Response to LymphocyteLover (Reply #15)
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Fish700
(148 posts)All I would care about is that she is not Trump.
LymphocyteLover
(9,848 posts)and how good Trump is. Then the persuadable voters were low info who didn't pay attention to news and didn't know much about Kamala but heard disinfo about her and Biden and the border etc.
Yavin4
(37,182 posts)That's where the campaign was lost.
ecstatic
(35,075 posts)freely without consequences? A lot of this is on garland. And mitch. And the media. And voters. The list goes on and on. smh.
Janbdwl72
(266 posts)As an earlier post on this thread indicated and has been mentioned on DU before, Garland did not have the audacity needed to prosecute the Tsar and he was not up to the task. He never should have been appointed. The only hope was to appoint Jack Smith much earlier.
To me, Garland goes down as the worst AG ever to serve under a Democratic President and no one else even comes close.
bigtree
(94,269 posts)...much less assemble TWO grand juries, get full recommendations for indictments, and bringing forward TWO historic, multi-felony indictments.
Name one other AG who has done this.
Yavin4
(37,182 posts)Relying on norms and precedents is how we got into this mess.
bigtree
(94,269 posts)...but standards and norms. Of course it was.
Here you have concern about election interference, yet advocating Biden's DOJ violate department regs or some other departure from procedure to prosecute the AG's boss' political rival in the election.
What's the principle there? Have DOJ focus on winning the election for Democrats (OR REPUBLICANS), instead of following evidence where it leads and putting in front of the grand juries that the federal justice system uses to determine charges?
What other crimes committed should DOJ put their thumb on the scale to prosecute? Where's the line? Who decides it?
Why have any rules guiding investigators and prosecutors at DOJ, for that matter? Maybe they should just make rules up as they go along to suit whatever political or partisan goal they want to achieve.
Fish700
(148 posts)Guilty people are in jail.
bigtree
(94,269 posts)...to have one more conviction before they showed up to keep him from office?
Ridiculous. That's not Garland, that's Democratic voters who sat on their asses and didn't produce.
FFS, the man was ALREADY in court with all of the evidence, testimony, and standing already argued and won. Voters pulled the rug out from a prosecution that was well underway.
The actual case is STILL there, intact, waiting to be prosecuted. Waiting for another election where VOTERS are responsible, not a legal process which has ZERO laws or anything to keep ANY felon from running, being elected, and assuming office, even serving from jail.
Republican and Trump-appointed justices and judges delayed the trial until voters stepped in to end the effort.
Fish700
(148 posts)Self Esteem
(2,248 posts)But beyond that, why does anyone believe if Garland acted with more urgency the outcome wouldn't have been delayed the second Trump opted to run?
This is such a naive take. Trump was literally found guilty in New York and what happened? Did it sink him? Did it doom his campaign? If anything, it made it stronger.
Fish700
(148 posts)Self Esteem
(2,248 posts)You are making my argument for me.
Here he was charged, convicted and didn't go to jail at any point with his New York conviction. Why would anyone expect something different with Garland?
I think you people have total recall of everything imaginary.
Jack Smith was appointed in 2022.
What makes anyone think if it was a year earlier, there wouldn't have been more delays? Smith had TWO YEARS from his appointment and NOTHING happened outside indictments. An additional year was not going to change anything. It still would have been dragged out after the election. And I can say so with such certainty because Smith ran into the same road blocks he, or Garland, would have run into regardless of the time frame.
Some of you people live in an alternate reality. Trump was never going to federal trial. It was never going to happen. It would have played out exactly like it did this go around - with the Supreme Court ruling on immunity and delays in the process.
Fish700
(148 posts)usonian
(25,328 posts)History (real soon) will show him among the most able and effective presidents of all time. He PREVENTED war. Who gets credit for that? A null result?
He just didn't have the enormous force to counter an additional 4 years of brainwashing and both-siderism that matter more than issues in an age of personality politics, which I condemn as dangerous. It always has been, since "Give us Barrabas". People got Barrabas.
They do way too often.
If Joe is listening, Kamala can still be 47. Not for spite, but to break barriers. The number is forever. Like a world series. Dodgers aren't giving those rings back because of a shortened season.
Ursus Rex
(486 posts)Imo, the credit for the results of his work are gonna be swallowed up by the incoming administration.
LuvLoogie
(8,815 posts)and a lot of bad karma from slavery and genocide.
REAL work to atone for and counteract that motive is pending, I guess.
LymphocyteLover
(9,848 posts)LymphocyteLover
(9,848 posts)they said they wanted to go on his show and he wouldn't give them a time that worked
womanofthehills
(10,988 posts)Rogan said he would be happy to interview her anytime but she needed to come to his Austin studio. He said the the interview would be about 2 hrs - her people said one hour. I think her people should have compromised as the Rogan/Trump show got 100,000,000 views. So, Fetterman went on.
Last week, the Dems said they need a Dem Joe Rogan - they had one (Rogan said he was a Bernie Bro & had never voted for a Republican in his life) but he was attacked big time for taking “horse medicine “
. I think because he is a big sports and hunting guy, many assumed he was a Republican.
LymphocyteLover
(9,848 posts)They said he offered to do it in Houston but they couldn't find a date that works.
Rogan is more of a comic and conspiracy theorist than a conservative or liberal. Still he pushes a lot of problematic health disinfo out there.
ShazamIam
(3,129 posts)
TheProle
(3,982 posts)were suppressed a mere 4 years later? That seems unlikely.
ShazamIam
(3,129 posts)registration lists.
Joinfortmill
(21,169 posts)cjoki4
(42 posts)After the election, I heard Stuart Stevens give the details on past presidents and how the vote % of a loss or won, would match their approval rating. He gave the examples of Jimmy Carter and Obama's 2nd run.
President Biden was sitting at 41% and that's probably what he would have gotten if he stayed in the race. Kamala got 48%.
Kamala and Tim did the very best and it shows by this overperformance of the 41%.
And I really was not happy that Biden dropped out, but he would have lost and by a bigger margin.
Yes we lost Tester, Brown and Casey in the Senate but also won some very tough Senate races.
The house we are at 215/216.
This was not a landslide or a blow out election.
standingtall
(3,148 posts)what would've happened if he stayed in the race. If we had a disciplined party that rallied around their President we don't know what Biden's approval rating would've been in November. If our party wasn't disciplined enough to stand behind it's President then they weren't going to be disciplined enough to convey a winning message. As sorry, but they don't get to make a huge gamble like switching candidates 90 days before the election come up snake eyes with a roll of dice and then shout if only Biden would've dropped out sooner we'd have done better.
Self Esteem
(2,248 posts)Even before the debate, Biden was losing support. He rarely led in any head-to-head polls nationally and the swing states were even grimmer than Harris ever saw. I sat in with the campaign multiple times throughout 2023 and 2024 as part of my position with a local state party and guess what? The last internal poll that showed Biden up in places like Pennsylvania was from 2023.
He didn't lead in a single 2024 poll of the state.
The campaign might have turned it around but there's no evidence they could have because they hadn't to that point. On the eve of the debate, internal polls had Biden losing to Trump by four points nationally and down in every swing state. After the debate, and then right before Biden announced he was dropping out, the polls I saw had hi losing Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Virginia - on top of every swing other swing state.
He had a narrow lead in New York and Connecticut.
Knowing how the race turned out for Harris, no I do not believe Biden would have won. I think he would have lost by a much larger margin.
Polybius
(21,902 posts)Even the Friday before he dropped out he was insisting that he was staying in. What changed his mind?
Self Esteem
(2,248 posts)It was weeks of showing him the evidence that he was on a collision course to disaster. I think they kept hope that the polls would adjust but they continued to get progressively worse, especially their internals. My guess is he finally conceded he wasn't going to rebound and the deadline to drop out was quickly approaching with the convention like basically a month away.
Polybius
(21,902 posts)I remember in October a reporter asked him something like "If you didn't drop out, do you still think you would have beaten Trump?" His answer was a very stern and resounding "yes!" He sounded like he meant it 100%.
I honestly feel that he still thinks that he could have won.
Uncle Joe
(65,137 posts)Unless you take this fundamental structural and moral system failure on directly in a populist manner, one is basically running as Bugs Moran, not the IRS.
Thanks for the thread Jose Garcia
standingtall
(3,148 posts)She did not run a perfect or flawless campaign like some have claimed. She made some mistakes. She absolutely should've responded to the anti-trans ads. Andy Beshear had those same kind of anti-trans ads ran against him in Kentucky in 2023 and still won.
She never should've said "were the underdogs", because underdogs usually lose. Her gotv operation also targeted the wrong voters. Her narrow path to victory was always the path of least resistance. Tried to hard to flip Trump and republican voters in the suburbs and rural areas to no avail. There should've been a more aggressive outreach to White voters in urban. Which would've been the White voters more inclined to vote for her. The only White Demographic she did better with were College educated White voters. She also should've spent more time in the pockets of rural areas that have a high population of Black voters.
Blue_Tires
(57,596 posts)Still should have been enough to beat a doddering old clown with a criminal history rambling about Arnold Palmer's peener...
Dem voters stabbed her in the back.
standingtall
(3,148 posts)because most Dem voters voted for her unless your talking about the ones that didn't show up. Was the so called moderate republicans that claimed to not like Trump and the independents that stabbed her in the back.
Blue_Tires
(57,596 posts)Paladin
(32,354 posts)She lost because of the large number of people who were stupid enough to vote for trump. We all get to pay the price, now---hope you enjoy a health czar who thinks more positively of heroin than he does of life-saving vaccines.
Retrograde
(11,419 posts)she ran a good campaign* - maybe not perfect, but few things are. If she were not one of {female, non-White, Californian} I think she would have had a better shot.
*as far as I can tell - I live in an area so Blue as to verge on the Ultraviolet, and we don't see many presidential campaign stuff here
Response to Retrograde (Reply #26)
bigtree This message was self-deleted by its author.
MichMan
(17,151 posts)doc03
(39,086 posts)pop stars one after another in the convention or in rallies gained any votes.
True Dough
(26,674 posts)He sounded like a raving lunatic most of the time. WTF is wrong with this country voting for that narrow-minded, narcissistic loon?
NoMoreRepugs
(12,076 posts)young poorly educated white males? I thought her campaign was terrific all things considered.
Blue_Tires
(57,596 posts)1. No policy, just simple slogans and endless chants...
2. I don't know or watch Rogan, but everyone keeps telling me he's a big deal so be regular guests on his show... Throw in Howard Stern for good measure...
3. Make appearances at MMA and pro rasslin' events...
4. No more commercials, just communicate entirely in trendy memes...
5. Setup a staged "working at McDonald's" stunt for an iconic photo op
6. Setup a staged assassination attempt for an iconic photo op and make sure you're selling t-shirts with the photo within 24 hours
7. Setup a staged garbage truck for the third iconic photo op
8. Constantly hawk cheap and tawdry self-branded merchandise
9. Insult your crowd and insult your country, constantly
10. Everything our next candidate does or says must always remind the public of his or her own greatness.
11. And for the love of God, run either a white man or maybe a Latino man next time...
standingtall
(3,148 posts)So being a guest on his show would be nothing more than a setup. Some people will claim he is not a right wing shill, because he supported Bernie Sanders, but that doesn't mean anything to me. Shell game might have only supported Sanders, because he thought he be easier for Trump to beat in 2016. As far as all the liberal causes Rogan has professed to support I call bologna on it. Action speak louder then words. If you really support universal healthcare then you don't support a man who tried to take healthcare away from millions and will try again and might succeed this time. If you really support universal basic income then you support a man that's trying to take benefits away from poor people not to mention Rogan's history of racist and anti-trans remarks he is maga and that who he has always been.
taxi
(2,712 posts)Bread and circuses, from wiki.
This list is a litany of errors, any single one a warning. But the clown shoes fit and matched their costumes.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_circuses
gemini_liberal
(322 posts)I know some people will snark that these advisors are just trying to wash their hands of any responsibility but the fact is switching to Harris was a long-shot roll of the dice and didn't pay off.
While, obviously, no campaign is perfectly run and, in hindsight, it's always easy to find the glaring mistakes, I think that a lot of Trump's support was baked in from the get-go - something that seemed more apparent as polling didn't seem to budge that much, despite the stark contrast between the quality of both campaigns and the favorability ratings of each respective candidate.
Perception of the economy and the state of affairs was extremely negative and not favorable to incumbents (anywhere in the world) and Trump, unfortunately, managed to ride that dissatisfaction. The only hope was maybe people might be disgusted enough with Trump that Democrats might have a shot.
Again, not saying the Harris campaign couldn't have done certain things differently but I don't think it would have made that substantial of a difference.
And, one last thing, I should address the elephant in the room: I do sincerely believe that Harris's race and gender did contribute to some of her lack of support. Unfortunately, I think the bogeyman of the "woke DEI hire" has poisoned a lot of brains and I think some people voted against her because they believed she was unqualified and got to where she was because of her race and gender (this was actually one of the first lines of attack that the Trump campaign were going for, with their nasty rumors about her and stoking frustration that she was just "swapped-in" without a vote.)
NameAlreadyTaken
(2,301 posts)
J_William_Ryan
(3,496 posts)Correct.
Since before the primaries a majority of the voters were determined to put Trump back in the HW – regardless the Democratic nominee.
Blue_Tires
(57,596 posts)Trump IS the status quo, he IS "the establishment", he IS "the swamp", and there's no reason to believe he'll somehow be better this time around...
Cosmocat
(15,424 posts)nm
Blue_Tires
(57,596 posts)and cheering standing room only crowds and endorsements and absolutely crushing Donnie in the debate and the polls that had Harris tied or ahead in every battlefield state and raising a billion dollars in 90 days and Donnie totally fading in the last 8 weeks turned out to be a total mirage... 😞
Cosmocat
(15,424 posts)I think that for one last time, out of hundreds prior, Ds/progressives once again underestimated him. I could see and feel his support, and posted countless times it was a coin flip and absolutely was not going to be the big win for Kamala a lot here thought.
Blue_Tires
(57,596 posts)That came even close to reflecting the Obama levels of enthusiasm, Donnie gets crushed... But they decided to fuck us instead by staying home, just like they did to Hillary...
And now that it's happened twice in eight years, I can't trust Dem voters anymore... Hell, I can't trust anybody anymore 😔
LisaL
(47,423 posts)Trump just got even more. So dems did show up in numbers, but Trumpers showed up in bigger numbers.
standingtall
(3,148 posts)because the U.S. population increased by over 31 million sense 2008 and often times Presidential elections get more votes then the one before it, because of continuing population growth with the exception of landslides. She still got 7 million less votes then Biden despite the fact U.S population has grown by over 6 million sense 2020.
nitpicked
(1,834 posts)A lot of people were still out of work.
And some of them were getting ballots mailed to them.
Much easier to vote than in 2024.
"Do I give up $30 in wages to go vote if Kamala will win anyway?"
Self Esteem
(2,248 posts)So many people here were convinced turnout would be greater than 2020 and I saw no chance of that happening. Maybe in raw total votes due to population increases but certainly not in turnout percentage.
2020 was the highest turnout of any election in 100 years. Replicating that would have been near-impossible for reasons you mentioned.
Turnout will decline and most of that decline came from Democratic voters staying home.
Fish700
(148 posts)Easiest vote in the world if you aren't an imbecile.
FBaggins
(28,706 posts)The population of registered voters hadn’t increased nearly that much. Turnout was higher this cycle than anything but 2020 (and was much closer to that than most realize)
Blue_Tires
(57,596 posts)Self Esteem
(2,248 posts)She got more total votes than Reagan in 1984. That doesn't mean anything.
In terms of overall percentage, she didn't come close to getting the same level of support Obama saw in 2012.
There is that ...
Self Esteem
(2,248 posts)It was easy to get caught up in the emotion of the thinner crowds, but a lot of people ignored the larger crowds in states that Harris was drawing very similar-sized audiences.
Blue_Tires
(57,596 posts)Half-empty seats and people leaving early never happened? 🤔
Self Esteem
(2,248 posts)He held a ton of rallies. Certainly more than Harris. Some had thinner crowds. Others? Not so much.
Here's one of his rallies in Wisconsin just days before the election:
People leaving early didn't mean they still weren't going to vote for him. There were plenty of articles interviewing people who left early and it generally just boiled down to the fact Trump was habitually late and his speeches tended to go on for two-plus hours.
Blue_Tires
(57,596 posts)Last edited Thu Nov 28, 2024, 06:29 PM - Edit history (1)
Or is this all "fake news"?🤨
https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-crowd-size-beyonce-kamala-harris-dfba0b3cdfa3b92009d7ed7bc938157e
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-rally-full-empty-seats-1235151596/
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-met-empty-seats-final-rallies-1979972
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trumps-enthusiastic-crowds-dwindle-elections-closing-days-rcna178672
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2024/11/04/watch-trump-claims-every-seat-at-rally-full-but-empty-rows/
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-faces-hundreds-empty-seats-final-pennsylvania-rally-1980223
Response to Blue_Tires (Reply #109)
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John Shaft
(808 posts)Response to Jose Garcia (Original post)
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dlk
(13,248 posts)There is an enormous double standard in reporting that continues to severely damage our country. Propaganda works!
I don’s see how articles/posts of this nature, blaming this person or that, really helps anyone.
dalton99a
(94,133 posts)Our fates were sealed the moment Biden decided to run for reelection - while the traitor was still at large and his cult was regaining strength
Ms. Toad
(38,643 posts)And Gaza.
I would have expected a bit more introspection, at least in retrospect.
Elessar Zappa
(16,385 posts)And she took what position she could with Gaza while still affirming Israel as a key ally.
Ms. Toad
(38,643 posts)their lying pocketbooks, it was too late. And introspection should at least acknowledge that - instead of saying there is nothing else she could have done. It isn't like the issue snuck up out of nowhere - I've been shouting about it since before May. (I don't remember when I started talking about it - but I remember a very specific conversation in May, with a friend who is liberal but was angry/discouraged about Biden's insistence that the economy is good - when she is struggling to pay her bills. It was the first conversation I'd had with a liberal who was fed up with the Democratic economic message.)
As for Israel, she could have included a Palestinian voice at the convention. And, if the leader and army of a country are using our weapons to slaughter thousands, we have an obligation to do more. Regardless of whether we consider that country a key ally.
The turnout of our traditional base in heavily minority, poor districts contributed to our loss - because we didn't effectively address issues that concerned them. Individuals with close connections to the middle east (other than Israelis) voted in significant numbers for third party candidates - or stayed at home.
If we continue to ignore those realities, 2026 and 2028 will be a repeat of 2024.
JCMach1
(29,202 posts)But we unilaterally disarmed.
We could have countered their message with counter programming and did little to nothing to try to manipulate THEIR voter turnout.
While we were having concerts,.they were manipulating voters online to stay home, especially in key states.
andym
(6,066 posts)Last edited Wed Nov 27, 2024, 04:01 PM - Edit history (1)
She needed to differentiate herself from Joe who was getting blamed for the higher costs of living reflected in his sub 40% favorability. Taking on the mantle of reformer is one way to do it. Barack Obama had Hope and Change along with big plans for health care and rescuing the economy. Kamala needed something big that didn't just sound like a continuation of Joe-- this is for marketing herself to voters as much as anything, given the economy was good and inflation was tamed. But historically higher costs of living reflect poorly on the party in power.
gulliver
(13,985 posts)They were weighed down by inflation, immigration, the media's wrong take on the Afghanistan withdrawal, and the (hopefully dying) remnants of identity politics in the party.
I'm hoping we just completely dump the identity politics. It was never a good idea, and it just encouraged extremists and grifters to feed on us while backfiring on the supposed beneficiaries.
We can get back the working class, but we need males. It's completely terrible for men and women to be at odds politically. We need to get reasonable there.
Dem4life1234
(2,533 posts)With a disgusting orange lard boot licking media.
Passages
(4,161 posts)Unless they are working for the other side.
1.5 billion dollars and no changes.
Frontline Democrats Won With Progressive Populist Messages
Longtime Democratic moderates who attacked big business and monopolies outpaced Harris in swing districts.
by Luke Goldstein November 22, 2024
More often than not, efforts to fight corporate power come from the left flank of the Democratic Party, and have ever since progressives spawned the regulatory state in the early 20th century and the New Deal took on Wall Street. For the past several decades, by contrast, the party’s centrists have generally been more accommodating toward free-market solutions.
But times are changing as old ideological reflexes are starting to come undone.
SNIP
In The New York Times, John Fetterman’s former chief of staff Adam Jentleson went so far as to say that giant corporations such as Amazon are “extremely popular” and thus candidates looking to rein in corporate power “are the inverse of what voters want—people with the cultural sensibilities of Yale Law School graduates who cosplay as populists by over-relying on niche issues like Federal Trade Commission antitrust actions.”
The premise of this argument relies just about entirely on a misreading of the electorate at the national level that completely falls apart on closer inspection of the down-ballot races. Across the country, candidates not named Kamala Harris found success by more effectively selling the achievements of the Biden administration and casting a more convincing economic message.
https://prospect.org/politics/2024-11-22-frontline-democrats-won-with-progressive-populist-messages/
yardwork
(69,364 posts)Would Sherrod Brown have aon reelection in Ohio if, instead of running away from Biden and Harris, he'd embraced Bidenomics?
Passages
(4,161 posts)Ohio's Sherrod Brown won't rule out running for Senate again
Politico
https://www.politico.com › news › 2024/11/24 › sherro...
3 days ago — Ohio will have a special Senate race in 2026 after Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, fills the pending vacancy created by Sen. JD Vance ascending ...
Citizen United is going to kill us.
Passages
(4,161 posts)Sherrod Brown Should Benefit From Biden’s Industrial Policy. You Wouldn’t Know It From His Campaign.
Democrats embraced big payments aimed at working-class and GOP-trending voters only to see the attention largely go unrequited. The policy is virtually absent from Ohio’s tight Senate race.
https://www.notus.org/2024-election/sherrod-brown-ohio-senate-industrial-policy-biden
Self Esteem
(2,248 posts)In reality, the campaign felt they were the underdog for 95% of the race. LOTS of people wanted to deny that reality but it was true. They saw a very narrow path to victory but it essentially meant everything had to align just perfectly. They knew the odds were against 'em.
The only time I think they felt 'good' about their chances was the final week when it appeared voters were breaking toward her after the MSG rally. But it was all a mirage.
Blue Owl
(59,107 posts)I bet if the swing state votes were recounted, we'd find that Walz/Harris won
Bobstandard
(2,297 posts)The base thought the “they’re weird” message was a good starting point. They wanted more red meat, not oatmeal but Plouffe and his ilk engineered a turn to the middle. When our message should have been ‘he’s a rapist, a racist and a conman’ , they went with ‘the politics of joy’, to ‘finding common ground’ and similar failed appeals to the mythical middle, the mythical undecided. A veiled but public threat to Netanyahu would have gone a long way with many but perish the thought.
Here’s an example of how the democratic establishment ignores the base: how many democratic figures post here? How many democratic figures go on the Sirius Progress talk shows? Ted Fucking Cruz focused on the base via innumerable base focused podcasts. How many Dems did likewise?
It’s always knives to a gunfight with Dems. We’ll continue getting our ashes kicked until that ends.
Response to Jose Garcia (Original post)
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Fish700
(148 posts)Response to Fish700 (Reply #102)
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Fish700
(148 posts)The Biden Administration set the stage for the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire. Enjoy the kool-aid.
Response to Fish700 (Reply #105)
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WhiskeyGrinder
(26,956 posts)jalan48
(14,914 posts)Who was responsible for this fuck up?
Polybius
(21,902 posts)When repeatedly asked how she would differ from Biden on policies, she never provided the answer that many voters wanted to hear. Heck, she even once said "I can't think of anything."
Trump ran on that, even putting it in ads. It was highly effective and cost her votes.
ucrdem
(15,720 posts)Way wrong. Harris didn't need to distance herself from Biden. She needed to tell us all THEY had accomplished. That's also where Biden went wrong in the debate but he still had the fact that he was Biden and had spent the last sixty years generating good will toward Joe Biden. That is also why the debate was not the big hairy deal they made it out to be.