I will argue with you there. She may not have been the best candidate, and might not have won the nomination if there was a primary in 2024, but if she had been elected she would have done the job competently.
I agree that she would have been fine. And I certainly voted for her because she wasn’t Trump. But she did poorly in the primaries leading up to 2020, she did not distance herself enough from Biden, she isn’t the strongest speaker or communicator. I stand by saying that she wasn’t a good candidate and that’s why she lost to Trump where many other Democrats could have won.
In her defense I don’t blame her for it. She was unfairly put into a shitty situation. I blame Biden and the DNC way more, but it is what it is.
Oh, I definitely blame Biden. He should have stuck to his one-term promise.
We might differ on whether Harris was a “good” candidate, but I think we agree that we would have a better candidate (whether it turned out to be Harris or not) if that candidate was chosen as the result of a competitive primary.
Yeah I think the timing was critical. She started campaigning way too late.
I do think Biden did a good job and got a lot of things moving in the right direction. I also think too many of the things he started were too long term: “continue the same policies” was the best answer. However we as a country no longer have the patience, we need instanteous gratuity that was just not there. It’s somewhat like the Jimmy Carter problem: it doesn’t matter how smart you are or whether you’re doing the right thing if you can’t get everyone excited.
Harris started off strong but really didn’t get anyone excited and “more of the same” was not the way to do it (even if she were right).
She needed time and distance to better establish her as a distinct candidate.
I even see Biden’s logic of “can’t let Trump win and no other candidates stand out” but it was the wrong approach. In hindsight, yes, dropping out much earlier was clearly the better choice
Maybe not even competently. The bar is so low even a badly run admin by her would be better than what we have now. Simply because the narcissism and ability to act on it wouldn’t be there.
That is the problem, in hindsight, both Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris would have been better for the country than what we ended up with instead.
Are we all just sexist assholes?
Given who the current president is, we’re in an era where image matters far more than qualifications. People say they voted for the current president for reasons of image, even when it flies in the face of reality. Similarly the current president was very effective at name calling, and so confidently spewing nonsense that people fell for it. Trump’s biggest skill was always bullshitting and Harris was one of his victims.
I will argue with you there. She may not have been the best candidate, and might not have won the nomination if there was a primary in 2024, but if she had been elected she would have done the job competently.
Sometimes, the perfect is the enemy of the good.
I agree that she would have been fine. And I certainly voted for her because she wasn’t Trump. But she did poorly in the primaries leading up to 2020, she did not distance herself enough from Biden, she isn’t the strongest speaker or communicator. I stand by saying that she wasn’t a good candidate and that’s why she lost to Trump where many other Democrats could have won.
In her defense I don’t blame her for it. She was unfairly put into a shitty situation. I blame Biden and the DNC way more, but it is what it is.
Oh, I definitely blame Biden. He should have stuck to his one-term promise.
We might differ on whether Harris was a “good” candidate, but I think we agree that we would have a better candidate (whether it turned out to be Harris or not) if that candidate was chosen as the result of a competitive primary.
Yeah I think the timing was critical. She started campaigning way too late.
I do think Biden did a good job and got a lot of things moving in the right direction. I also think too many of the things he started were too long term: “continue the same policies” was the best answer. However we as a country no longer have the patience, we need instanteous gratuity that was just not there. It’s somewhat like the Jimmy Carter problem: it doesn’t matter how smart you are or whether you’re doing the right thing if you can’t get everyone excited.
Harris started off strong but really didn’t get anyone excited and “more of the same” was not the way to do it (even if she were right).
She needed time and distance to better establish her as a distinct candidate.
I even see Biden’s logic of “can’t let Trump win and no other candidates stand out” but it was the wrong approach. In hindsight, yes, dropping out much earlier was clearly the better choice
Maybe not even competently. The bar is so low even a badly run admin by her would be better than what we have now. Simply because the narcissism and ability to act on it wouldn’t be there.
That is the problem, in hindsight, both Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris would have been better for the country than what we ended up with instead.
Are we all just sexist assholes?
Given who the current president is, we’re in an era where image matters far more than qualifications. People say they voted for the current president for reasons of image, even when it flies in the face of reality. Similarly the current president was very effective at name calling, and so confidently spewing nonsense that people fell for it. Trump’s biggest skill was always bullshitting and Harris was one of his victims.