HuffPost: Harris aides say her campaign was always doomed.

[Chief Justice PiT]

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

     Democrats heavily overvalue celebrity endorsements. The problem with their choice of priorities is that Rogan exists in the political realm while Beyonce is mainly a performer. Rogan was a Berniebro whose move to Trump was persuasive to a lot of men like him. Near as I could tell, the Beyonce rally made Democrat partisans feel good because they could claim Harris was turning out people (even though it was obvious that they were turning out for Beyonce), but from a strategic votes standpoint it was a very poor decision and casts serious doubt on the expertise in the Harris camp.

[Bush did 311]

I kinda wondered if democrats treated this whole year as a strategic bunt. As if they intended to lose, but Biden was doing a bit too good of a job of it so they pulled him out last minute--because they have to LOOK like they're trying to win to get donations, and turnout from their base, and to play for the House and the state races.

Idk there were some 2004 vibes to the campaign.

[Open Source Intelligence]

I kinda wondered if democrats treated this whole year as a strategic bunt. As if they intended to lose, but Biden was doing a bit too good of a job of it so they pulled him out last minute--because they have to LOOK like they're trying to win to get donations, and turnout from their base, and to play for the House and the state races.

Idk there were some 2004 vibes to the campaign.

Democrats in general the past cycle were pretty upbeat about winning a rematch against Trump until I feel Q1/Q2 this year.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

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.

They really did their best to solidify the party as the establishment status quo warmonger party.

[Mr. Smith]

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.

Exceeding Trump 2020 numbers and doing better than Hillary or Gore as a percentage doesn't exactly prove this.

[Accordion Hazard]

It was kind of conspicuous that rightwing internals were flooding the zone while leftwing internals were rare. If you assume "only release the internals if the numbers look good" and "Harris was always behind, and knew it" well then that was exactly the pattern you'd expect.

Though I don't see anything disingenuous about the campaign in handling. The field of play turned out to be:

WI=R+0.9
MI=R+1.4
USA=R+1.5
PA=R+1.7 (tipping point)
GA=R+2.2
NV=R+3.1
NC=R+3.2
AZ=R+5.5

If their internal polling is saying that, while that's not good that's still definitely "has a chance" range. Having an Obama2012 style polling overperformance would've given her victory, possibly by more than Biden in the key states at that.

[LBJer]

Democrats now demand that their voters agree with them on every issue, no exceptions allowed.

Is it really so much to expect voters not to return someone who did everything possible--including inciting violence--to overturn an election he lost fair and square to power?

[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.

Exceeding Trump 2020 numbers and doing better than Hillary or Gore as a percentage doesn't exactly prove this.

The population of the country is much higher than it was back then and third party candidates received very little support this time.

[Agafin]

It was kind of conspicuous that rightwing internals were flooding the zone while leftwing internals were rare. If you assume "only release the internals if the numbers look good" and "Harris was always behind, and knew it" well then that was exactly the pattern you'd expect.

Nate Silver said something like that when people accused right wing internals of flooding the zone. "Where are the left-wing internals?" Funnily enough, most of those right wing polls also underestimated Trump.

[Reactionary Libertarian]

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.

It’s not progressive staffers’ fault that Kamala Harris didn’t feel confident doing an unscripted conversation on Joe Rogan. Look, the Democratic staffing pipeline is a big problem. But I think Harris and her staff ran a pretty decent campaign. The issue is that she is bad candidate. It’s not staffers’ fault she is on the record endorsing government-funded sex changes for illegal immigrants in prison. It’s not staffers’ fault she struggles with interviews so badly that she messed up basic questions on The View and Stephen Colbert. It’s not staffers’ fault that she is Biden’s VP and couldn’t credibly distance herself from him. It’s not staffers’ fault that she is,  frankly, not very intelligent for a presidential candidate.

What any Democrat needed to do win this year was to a) distance him/herself from the Biden administration and b) send out a clear message that he/she would govern more moderately than Biden did, especially on the border. Harris tried to do that, but as Biden’s VP she was never going to be able to distance herself from him. Throwing him under the bus was always going to look politically calculated and there were many clips of her defending him and his approach. She cast the deciding vote on his legislation in the Senate, for crying out loud! The idea that she would govern more moderately was always highly questionable when she has a highly progressive track record, both in the Senate and in the 2020 primary, and of course was ties to Joe Biden. And she struggled to get her message out because she’s bad at interviews.

[Samof94]

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

     Democrats heavily overvalue celebrity endorsements. The problem with their choice of priorities is that Rogan exists in the political realm while Beyonce is mainly a performer. Rogan was a Berniebro whose move to Trump was persuasive to a lot of men like him. Near as I could tell, the Beyonce rally made Democrat partisans feel good because they could claim Harris was turning out people (even though it was obvious that they were turning out for Beyonce), but from a strategic votes standpoint it was a very poor decision and casts serious doubt on the expertise in the Harris camp.

Trump got Jason Aldean's endorsement tbf. He goes golfing with Trump.

[#LANK]

1) Biden should've never ran for re-election
2) "Not a thing comes to mind" may be the biggest unforced error by a D since "I was for it before I was against it" (All I'll say ab "basket of deplorables" is I've never regretted a pres primary vote)

Any other action in hindsight requires purging all the ghouls that caused the same mess 8 years ago. They need to stop listening to Obama's WH people too, they've lost any luster they once had.

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.

I would argue the latter sentence, but frankly "Bernie woulda been shot if he somehow won in '16" may be the best cope on that jawn for anyone's mental health atp

[Chief Justice PiT]

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

     Democrats heavily overvalue celebrity endorsements. The problem with their choice of priorities is that Rogan exists in the political realm while Beyonce is mainly a performer. Rogan was a Berniebro whose move to Trump was persuasive to a lot of men like him. Near as I could tell, the Beyonce rally made Democrat partisans feel good because they could claim Harris was turning out people (even though it was obvious that they were turning out for Beyonce), but from a strategic votes standpoint it was a very poor decision and casts serious doubt on the expertise in the Harris camp.

Trump got Jason Aldean's endorsement tbf. He goes golfing with Trump.

     Sure, but how many votes did that really sway? There are pro-Republican celebrities, but they don't tend to make a big splash either. If there's any learning I personally hope that Democrats take away from this election it's to not worry about that kind of thing, so we don't have to listen to pointless speculation over whether Taylor Swift will endorse the Democrat or not.

[EastOfEden]

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?

I'm not sure it was. I think a Trump second term beginning in 2021 does more damage to the country. Personally, I'm grateful for the "stopgap" we've had. It gave American democracy a moment to catch its breath and refortify itself for this second onslaught. I think we're better prepared for it now.

[Schumer can go f*** himself!]

Joe Rogan is a vile and deeply misogynistic anti-vaxxer bigot.  Democrats need to widen their appeal, but not by pandering to scum like him.  Someone like Rogan naturally gravitates to Trump in the same way the flies are attracted to a pile of sh!t.  That’s not the reason Democrats lost and trying to pander to folks like Rogan will only shrink the coalition. 

[heatcharger]

Joe Rogan is a vile and deeply misogynistic anti-vaxxer bigot.  Democrats need to widen their appeal, but not by pandering to scum like him.  Someone like Rogan naturally gravitates to Trump in the same way the flies are attracted to a pile of sh!t.  That’s not the reason Democrats lost and trying to pander to folks like Rogan will only shrink the coalition. 

Excellent news for the Republican Party.

[Schumer can go f*** himself!]

Joe Rogan is a vile and deeply misogynistic anti-vaxxer bigot.  Democrats need to widen their appeal, but not by pandering to scum like him.  Someone like Rogan naturally gravitates to Trump in the same way the flies are attracted to a pile of sh!t.  That’s not the reason Democrats lost and trying to pander to folks like Rogan will only shrink the coalition. 

Excellent news for the Republican Party.

Imagine actually believing this

[heatcharger]

Joe Rogan is a vile and deeply misogynistic anti-vaxxer bigot.  Democrats need to widen their appeal, but not by pandering to scum like him.  Someone like Rogan naturally gravitates to Trump in the same way the flies are attracted to a pile of sh!t.  That’s not the reason Democrats lost and trying to pander to folks like Rogan will only shrink the coalition. 

Excellent news for the Republican Party.

Imagine actually believing this

I don’t have to imagine it, I just won

[AlterEgo]

Joe Rogan is a vile and deeply misogynistic anti-vaxxer bigot.  Democrats need to widen their appeal, but not by pandering to scum like him.  Someone like Rogan naturally gravitates to Trump in the same way the flies are attracted to a pile of sh!t.  That’s not the reason Democrats lost and trying to pander to folks like Rogan will only shrink the coalition. 

Excellent news for the Republican Party.

Imagine actually believing this

I don’t have to imagine it, I just won

Um...no. "You" did not just win anything. The candidate you supported and voted for won.

When are we going to stop treating politics like it's a football game?

[Linda Van der Hampel]

Harris came really close to winning though: WI and MI were all close and the difference was only a few hundred thousand votes. She spent almost 1 billion dollars in ads and that likely prevented her from losing in a landslide, like Biden certainly would have. Biden would have lost by a landslide, similar to McCain in 2008. Taking everything into context, Harris ran a near-flawless campaign without a major blunder and that's what's kept her within striking distance on election day in the rust belt. It could have been far, far worse. Imagine if she had several mistakes and gaffes during her campaign. She might have even won the popular vote, if she concentrated the 1 billion dollars in ad spending more evenly on the population-rich states, instead of dumping everything into the 7 swing states though.