My analysis is the Democrat party leadership should have conducted a true primary election.
She was "gifted" the nomination, vs being selected in the primary. I think the populace responded in turn: This wasn't their candidate. Compare this to the Obama vs Clinton selection, which I actually believe the populace would have supported either.
btw: I'm not sure I'd compare this to the 2020 primaries as 2020 was a special year, and I don't think really any of the candidates really resonated with the voters, Biden just "wasn't Trump".
The issue isn't how she got the nomination but how bad of a candidate she is. People did not like her before she was VP. She was considered a joke candidate was performed extremely poorly in the 2020 primaries. The main reason a primary would have been better is because Harris would have lost and been replaced with a better candidate.
And Biden was himself picked as a VP because Obama thought he'd be too old to run after his second term, and so would be completely loyal, rather then thinking about how decisions he made as a VP would affect his own future campaign.
Yes, for sure, but the way Biden’s mental fitness was poor-pooed as misinformation for years and then Harris was installed at the last minute really undermines the “we’re the party of democracy” narrative.
If his VP was 2nd or 3rd place in the 2020 primaries, it wouldn't be a big deal compared to Harris because the candidate would be someone that a significant portion of the Dems actually support and want as a president.
I was opposed to Biden dropping out because skipping the primary means you go into the general election without the real pulse of the voters in your party.
I think Democrats in general are putting far too much weight on survey based polls, and not enough on ballet box polls.
I wouldn't even rule out 2020 like you're doing - I think Biden is actually a very compelling candidate for a lot of folks that don't get much mention in typical democratic discussion circles. Religious, relatively socially conservative but economically left (traditional union left, not neo-liberal), white, male.
While people complained about it not being Sanders online - Sanders and Biden were fairly similar platforms in a lot of respects, with the difference being that corporate money was less hostile to Biden - and it's telling that they were the only two to take any significant percentage of the primary vote (no other candidate broke 3mm votes)
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Basically - I think there's a solid chance that despite the polling news around the first debate, Biden might have actually performed more strongly on election night.
As an extra note - As someone who was initially very critical of Biden... I have a lurking suspicion that he's going to be considered an excellent president in a historical context because he managed to invest heavily in infrastructure.
She was "gifted" the nomination, vs being selected in the primary. I think the populace responded in turn: This wasn't their candidate. Compare this to the Obama vs Clinton selection, which I actually believe the populace would have supported either.
btw: I'm not sure I'd compare this to the 2020 primaries as 2020 was a special year, and I don't think really any of the candidates really resonated with the voters, Biden just "wasn't Trump".