HuffPost: Harris aides say her campaign was always doomed.

[Tekken_Guy]

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kamala-harris-campaign-polls_n_67462013e4b0fffc5a469baf

[有爭議嘅領土 of The Figgis Agency]

“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.

Plouffe said the campaign’s internal polling never had Harris ahead of Trump.

“We didn’t get the breaks we needed on Election Day,” he said. “I think it surprised people, because there was these public polls that came out in late September, early October, showing us with leads that we never saw.”

“We tested a ton of responses to this, direct responses, and none of them ever tested as well as basically her talking about what she would do... the future, the type of president that she would be,” Fulks said.

The campaign’s internal research, Fulks said, indicated they should focus their message on attacking Trump or introducing Harris to voters in a positive way, rather than defending her from Trump’s attacks. (Plouffe noted that two Democratic candidates did put out ads responding to anti-trans attacks; neither won their race.)

“If we spent this entire race pushing back on immigration attacks or crime attacks and pushing back against trans attacks, at what point are we bringing Trump down and/or introducing the vice president on our own terms?” Fulks said. “We’re playing on their field.”

[ProgressiveModerate]

I do wonder how much the optimism right ahead of the election was manufactured - like Jen O Malley releasing that video of "here's why you don't need to be worried, we feel good about our chances".

In hindsight though, it does seem like Dems had a better sense of what was going on than most pundits. This is reflected especially in down ballot spending - many of us criticized their decision to basically bail on races like NJ-07 and TX-Sen, while giving Dem incumbents who many assumed to be clearly favored too much money, but in hindsight it does make sense.

[Progressive Pessimist]

So they really were the underdogs.

I suppose this confirms that we are fortunate to have salvaged some down-ballot races and that it could actually have been worse.

It's just a shame that if this was always a Republican-leaning environment, that it just had to be the worst person possible once again benefitting from it. I would have been disappointed if someone like Burgum or Haley was the GOP candidate and won, but it wouldn't feel existential and draining like it does with Trump winning again, now affirmatively, and not in a way that isn't a complete accident this time. He, once again, benefits from a lack of shame that nobody else can get away with. He could have gone away or been barred from running again by being convicted, but no!

[Eidolon]

Everyday that passes the more and more I feel like we were better off electing Trump in 2020. We'd toss him out 4 years earlier, all the cost-of-living crisis would've probably been worse with him, there'd be a blue wave in 2022, and a Democrat would've won this year's election.


Perhaps 2020 was a curse in disguise?

[Progressive Pessimist]

Everyday that passes the more and more I feel like we were better off electing Trump in 2020. We'd toss him out 4 years earlier, all the cost-of-living crisis would've probably been worse with him, there'd be a blue wave in 2022, and a Democrat would've won this year's election.


Perhaps 2020 was a curse in disguise?

It's why I just want to time travel to 2000 and reverse that election. Every other permutation probably still results in at least two terms of Trump, no matter what.

[LBJer]

He could have gone away or been barred from running again by being convicted, but no!

Thank the Republicans in Congress who didn't vote to convict him.  Some did--like Mitt Romney--but they were the exception.  Apparently it's reasonable to expect military personnel to put themselves on the line for their country, but not lawmakers

Also thank Merrick Garland, who was as weak as could be.  You should actually thank Biden too--if it mattered to him enough that Trump be convicted, he would have demanded Garland move quickly to prosecute him, and if Garland didn't, he would have fired him and found someone who would. 

[Progressive Pessimist]

He could have gone away or been barred from running again by being convicted, but no!

Thank the Republicans in Congress who didn't vote to convict him.  Some did--like Mitt Romney--but they were the exception.  Apparently it's reasonable to expect military personnel to put themselves on the line for their country, but not lawmakers

Also thank Merrick Garland, who was as weak as could be.  You should actually thank Biden too--if it mattered to him enough that Trump be convicted, he would have demanded Garland move quickly to prosecute him, and if Garland didn't, he would have fired him and found someone who would. 

Not to mention the Supreme Court and other Trump delay tactics being permitted to work. He doesn't have to play by any rules, but everyone else does so we don't upset the pwecious wittle President.

[LBJer]

He could have gone away or been barred from running again by being convicted, but no!

Thank the Republicans in Congress who didn't vote to convict him.  Some did--like Mitt Romney--but they were the exception.  Apparently it's reasonable to expect military personnel to put themselves on the line for their country, but not lawmakers

Also thank Merrick Garland, who was as weak as could be.  You should actually thank Biden too--if it mattered to him enough that Trump be convicted, he would have demanded Garland move quickly to prosecute him, and if Garland didn't, he would have fired him and found someone who would. 

Not to mention the Supreme Court and other Trump delay tactics being permitted to work. He doesn't have to play by any rules, but everyone else does so we don't upset the pwecious wittle President.

The lesson is that Democrats shouldn't play nice.  Doing so has never benefitted them.  Not just against Trump--Gore could have fought much harder to win Florida in 2000, for example. 

[Wrong about 2024 Ghost]

Everyday that passes the more and more I feel like we were better off electing Trump in 2020. We'd toss him out 4 years earlier, all the cost-of-living crisis would've probably been worse with him, there'd be a blue wave in 2022, and a Democrat would've won this year's election.


Perhaps 2020 was a curse in disguise?

It's why I just want to time travel to 2000 and reverse that election. Every other permutation probably still results in at least two terms of Trump, no matter what.

2000 and 2024 both feature a Republican nominee substantially aided by partisan decision-making from the Supreme Court. It is a broken institution that damns our counry.

[Progressive Pessimist]

He could have gone away or been barred from running again by being convicted, but no!

Thank the Republicans in Congress who didn't vote to convict him.  Some did--like Mitt Romney--but they were the exception.  Apparently it's reasonable to expect military personnel to put themselves on the line for their country, but not lawmakers

Also thank Merrick Garland, who was as weak as could be.  You should actually thank Biden too--if it mattered to him enough that Trump be convicted, he would have demanded Garland move quickly to prosecute him, and if Garland didn't, he would have fired him and found someone who would. 

Not to mention the Supreme Court and other Trump delay tactics being permitted to work. He doesn't have to play by any rules, but everyone else does so we don't upset the pwecious wittle President.

The lesson is that Democrats shouldn't play nice.  Doing so has never benefitted them.  Not just against Trump--Gore could have fought much harder to win Florida in 2000, for example. 

It's not like we have anything to lose anymore. And hopefully a new generation of Democratic leaders can act more upon that.

[John Lewis Fan]

For everyone information apparently this isn't what was said

https://x.com/nick_field90/status/1861590338994938286

[LBJer]

Given that she came close to winning, it's hard to argue her campaign was "doomed."  Other candidates who have narrowly lost--Gerald Ford in 1976, for example--aren't generally considered to have been doomed from the start, as far as I know. 

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

$1.5 billion was an incredible amount of money for a 15 week "always doomed" campaign.

[Agafin]

So like most of us kept saying, these people were lying and most of Harris' sudden popularity surge was astroturf. Rememeber in August when Harris supposedly had Obama 2008 level enthusiasm? LMAO.

[Stranger in a strange land]

$1.5 billion was an incredible amount of money for a 15 week "always doomed" campaign.

If that were the case, they should have disbursed some of the funds to state parties in purple and red states so that they could rebuild. We're never going to win the legislature or a statewide office in Alabama or Wyoming, but even just picking up a few legislative seats or some local offices will go a long way.

[Redban]

This is just saving face: "Hey, we lost. But we were facing an impossibly winnable election. That we got as close as we did means that we're awesome!"

[New World Man]

Her aides,especially the inner circle need to never be involved with another campaign.

[Stranger in a strange land]

Her aides,especially the inner circle need to never be involved with another campaign.

Whoever had the idea that she should campaign with Liz Cheney should never work on another campaign again, nor should the "progressive staffers" who refused to let her go on Joe Rogan.

[Chief Justice PiT]

     I didn't put two and two together at the time, but in retrospect it makes a lot of sense to say that internal polling never had her ahead; she really did not behave like a candidate that was winning. The midstream shift from a lighthearted message about how Trump was weird to a much heavier one about him being a fascist screamed desperation. The climax of this was the Madison Square Garden rally when all of the Harris campaign surrogates came out and called it a Nazi rally; at that point they were throwing anything at the wall to see if something stuck. The Puerto Rico trash heap comment must have seemed like a brass ring coming down when it happened, but Democrats failed to accurately model how Latino voters would react to that.

[GAinDC]

Her aides,especially the inner circle need to never be involved with another campaign.

Quentin Fulks led Warnock’s 2022 senate campaign, which was a big success

Talented people sometimes end up on a losing campaign. It doesn’t mean they are total failures.

[OSR stands with Israel]

     I didn't put two and two together at the time, but in retrospect it makes a lot of sense to say that internal polling never had her ahead; she really did not behave like a candidate that was winning. The midstream shift from a lighthearted message about how Trump was weird to a much heavier one about him being a fascist screamed desperation. The climax of this was the Madison Square Garden rally when all of the Harris campaign surrogates came out and called it a Nazi rally; at that point they were throwing anything at the wall to see if something stuck. The Puerto Rico trash heap comment must have seemed like a brass ring coming down when it happened, but Democrats failed to accurately model how Latino voters would react to that.

Also the fact that they used Obama the way they did , made it clear it was not a campaign that thought it was winning. Like the fact they used Obama to lecture Black Men about how sexist they are is actually crazy to think about .

It’s pretty clear at that point they were trying to bank on hoping gender polarization carries them to victory in the 3 blue wall states

[Spectator]

Her aides,especially the inner circle need to never be involved with another campaign.

High chance some of the D hacks on this site are inner campaign people. Based on some of their reactions to the loss blaming everyone else, yeah, they probably should all be fired and never advise a campaign again.

[Joe Biden 2028]

Her aides,especially the inner circle need to never be involved with another campaign.

Whoever had the idea that she should campaign with Liz Cheney should never work on another campaign again, nor should the "progressive staffers" who refused to let her go on Joe Rogan.

Nah, the campaign really did want her to go on Joe Rogan podcast. But the dates didn't work. Harris went to the Beyoance concert the one day the dates aligned and she was in Texas. Bad choice in hindsight

[It's Time.]

Democrats now demand that their voters agree with them on every issue, no exceptions allowed. Trump courted people like RFK even though RFK doesn’t agree with Trump on every issue. This has pushed people like Rogan, and many low-trust Obama voters into the GOP fold.