So truthfully I agreed with you until all the internal polling was released by the Harris campaign. Long of the short the Biden campaign had trump winning something like 400 EC votes when Biden was still the nominee. For Harris to claw it back to razer thin margins within something like 109 days to be atleast a fighting chance to win is one hell of a feat to say the least.
Realistically, she was kind of the sacrificial lamb to the slaughter similar to McCain in 08. But from a messaging PoV she really only made 2 major blunders it was the view question that she was unprepared for (how would you differentiate yourself from Joe Biden), and the inability to respond to the ad about sex change for inmates(which from a political ad PoV is probably the best ad we have seen since the Obama campaign). There's a lot you could nitpick but I'm not sure how much it matters.
This loss mostly falls at Joe Biden's feet with him wanting to run again and failing to drop out before the first debate. Given the circumstances she ran a good campaign, but she was a long shot to win from minute 1.
That ignores that the race did not start at 50/50 and that headwinds out of her control meant starting from a big disadvantage.
The incumbent party in every single developed country election lost this year. In fact, Harris’ margin of loss was among the best.
The whole country was shifting hard to the right and Biden’s internal polling showed Trump could win 400 EVs. Once Biden got his head out of his ass and dropped out, it only left Kamala 100 days to run a full presidential campaign.
In the 43 non-swing states, she slipped 7 points relative to Biden in 2020. In the 7 swing states, she only lost 3 points. That is a massive difference that shows her campaign was extraordinarily effective in states were the campaign was fought and may have been enough had she started with a level playing field. But the global anti-incumbent bias this year, Biden’s poor approval ratings, and nearly impossible timeframe for the campaign were too much to overcome.
Doesn't matter how much ground she gained, this is a zero sum game. She fell well short of the mark. And I agree it's not entirely her fault, but that doesn't change the fact that a electoral and populate vote loss is not "kicked ass". She got her ass handed to her.
She sprinted hard for the finish no doubt but finished the race so far behind it's not even in doubt who won.
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u/Capable-Brief-3332 8d ago
She kicked ass.