There has to be a bit of nuance here. I don’t know if there would have been a better candidate, I didn’t know that people like Tim Waltz and J.D Vance existed before they were picked as the running mates, so I’d say her being well known is certainly one of many factors. But we can’t just dismiss any problems she has because she’s our only choice. Yes, I’ll be voting for her, but if she wins, that still means we have to live with her as our president for at least four years. If we don’t have a nailed down agenda, yeah, that’s a massive problem.
Like, assuming this is actually the correct campaign website, control f only found three mentions of abortion between the homepage, the “Meet Kamala and Tim” pages, and the “Issues” pages. That’s something she should have front and center as part of her campaign, she absolutely crushed that part of the debate, is clearly passionate about it, and it’s an extremely relevant topic since Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ended national abortion protections. The issues page focuses on the Economy and Black Men, which is important, but that conveys to me that she’s using it more to showcase policies that would gain her votes, rather than her full agenda.
Voters are concerned about the economy. Recent internal and external polling projects suggest that Harris is struggling with Black men, so she’s making a last-minute pitch to Black male voters.
Yes, abortion and access to reproductive health care is important. If you listen to any of Harris’ or Walz’s speeches, you’ll hear them mention it every single time. There are abortion-related ballot measures in Arizona and Nevada which can drive out pro-choice voters who will eventually see that Harris/Walz are the ticket for reproductive rights. Montana, Maryland, and Florida have abortion-related measures as well, which can help in some of the closest senatorial races of this cycle. It’s a turnout game!
The other unfortunate reality is that there is relatively little Harris could do as President to improve abortion access. After Dobbs, abortion has basically become a state law issue. Of course, Congress could theoretically enact a federal statute guaranteeing a right to abortion, but that is simply not going to happen in this Congress or the next one (barring some massive last-minute shift to the Democrats). She could (and no doubt would) continue the Biden administration’s campaign in the courts against extraordinarily restrictive state laws that run afoul of existing federal law, see, e.g., Moyle v. United States, but these are mostly rearguard actions against the worst effects of Dobbs, not to mention based on highly technical legal grounds. Not exactly stump speech material. So while abortion remains a powerful rhetorical point for Harris, it’s hard for her to offer major, concrete policy proposals that have even a remote chance of being enacted.
For those wondering why many of the polling averages on 538 are now even, Republicans have strategized for conservative-leaning polling groups to release a boatload of +R polls.
They’re currently outpacing other pollsters.
This is why you should never trust the polls entirely. Always leave room for skepticism.
Agreed. I’m pretty sure the Biden campaign internals were showing Trump getting 400 electoral votes.
In my opinion, Biden was a darn good president and deserves some respect. I don’t necessarily think Kamala Harris was a bad candidate, she was just subject to a global trend of incumbent parties crumbling.
There are of course countless other reasons to why Harris lost.
I need you to elaborate on where you thought he wasn’t a good president, or what your bar is for being a good president.
Something I’ve noticed a lot online and in person is that folks will say he was ok, or was good in some areas and bad in others, but they never could give me a solid answer on where or why they felt like that. Aside from him choosing to run again (and preventing a full primary from taking place, which could have at least narrowed the margins when the wining candidate had more than ~100 days to introduce themself nationally), the second biggest hit was that this was a vibes based election and Biden just lost the vibe check. No grander explanation than that.
He also continued to support Israel, like every other US president. Which I also didn’t like. He kept letting Israel do whatever it wanted
Like I said, wasn’t terrible, but definitely could be better.
To be completely honest with you, I don’t give a shit about what happens to the US in terms of economics, I just wanted Biden to atleast solve the Israel-Hamas war. That’s what I want with every US president. I don’t care about anything else
That’s some real copium. I’d say a major factor to her loss is that people didn’t believe she’d handle the economy well because everyone thinks the economy is bad for some reason, and they also though Trump would be good for the economy because they didn’t do their research.
Which is fair enough, and worth every criticism. Harris didn’t separate herself enough from him on the subject, whenever she did speak on the matter, and that hurt in the general. Not nearly as much as the economy, since that’s what was gonna decide this election, but it was a factor.
I understand this question wasn’t for me, but let me just point out where Biden excelled.
First and foremost, I’m a moderate Democrat. That can explain some things.
Lowering costs on health insurance premiums, prescription drugs, utility bills etc…
Pro-union and pro-labor president, probably the most pro-labor president in American history
19 million new business applications since 2021, highlights how we’ve gotten back on the road after Covid
Promoting American manufacturing with semiconductor chips → bringing innovation back to the US
Investing in our infrastructure
Making major steps in tackling the climate crisis
Getting American citizens out of “wrongfully detained” situations abroad, namely ones in Russia
Being a pro-equality president who cares about people of all kinds and all types
Asserting the notion that reproductive rights should be the law of the land–those reproductive healthcare decisions should be made between a doctor and a woman
Protecting Social Security and Medicare
Conservation–I’m a big environmentalist
I do think his decision to run again was a poor one. It wasn’t exactly his fault–it was a group of senior WH advisors who told him that he could win (even though he really couldn’t). They just feared the lame duck thing.
Of course, he may come across as a lame duck now but he’d been better off stepping aside in 2023 as opposed to July 2024.
