Fuck David Plouffe. He’s been trying to sell this bullshit since November 6th. He went on Pod Save America to explain what went wrong with the Harris campaign. Did he admit that they should have distanced themselves from Biden on Gaza? Or that campaigning with Liz Cheney and targeting moderate Republicans was a failed strategy? Or that their middle-class platform cost them working-class voters? Nope! The conclusion he came to was that they did everything right, but they just didn’t have enough time. Joe Biden should live out his remaining years in shame and isolation for refusing to step down, but Plouffe’s campaign strategy was political malpractice, and he his failures can’t be blamed in senility.
Well said! Dems are an embarrassment mostly because they have a long history of fucking up at the worst possible time and then learning absolutley nothing from it.
Everyone had the same 4 years David Plouff. If you feel you needed more time, you’re admitting to being worse than everyone else who didn’t. And considering one of those people is a reality TV felon who can’t read, you must really suck at your job.
JFC it’s fucking over move on.
have we learned anything
The time for learning is over, either act or we are all heading to the last world war
this is their job. it’s how they keep their spot in those nice offices pretending to be opposition to Christofacism
No it’s not, the Democrats fucked themselves by not opposing Biden because it’s tradition not to.
As long as Democrats don’t improve their own democratic process, they will keep fucking themselves.
If Harris had been the candidate from the start, she might have had a better chance.
Biden being obliged when he broke his promise to not run again, was absolutely a mistake by the Democratic party.
Biden probably thought he had to save America again, and nobody told him no before it was too late.If Democrats can be counted on for something: It’s that they always make the worst decisions at the worst time, then learn nothing from it.
2000: Florida recount? Nah. It’s cool Supreme Court. Let’s have Bush around for 9-11 instead.
2001: Fuck yeah endless wars. Approved. It’s cool to lie about weapons of mass destruction too.
2002: Shame about that Patriot Act. Would be awful if that allowed all your meta data to be collected so you can be targeted for propaganda on every platform in the future.
2004: Shame about No Child Left Behind. Hope your kids don’t grow up stupid enough to think Trump would make a good president.
2008: Fuck yeah Obama! Get that HOPE ready! For Dems to have full control of every branch of the government! Only to use it to compromise with Republicans to remove the public option from national Healthcare. Hope that doesn’t create a spiral of misery for Americans culminating in them assassinating an insurance CEO!
I’m stopping here. But only because I don’t want to keep typing about Citizens United, minimum wage, and literally the slow death of everything Democrats claim to have been protecting.
literally the slow death of everything Democrats claim to have been protecting.
They also forgot to protect democracy somewhere along the way. 🙁
Democracy just died a death by 1000 cuts. Dems just have yet to realize it, let alone the fact they were the ones that stood by while it happened.
I’m pretty sure the ninety million people that didn’t vote had something to do with it also.
It did.
Do you feel those 90 million were supposed to vote Dem?
If so, by what mechanism?
Certainly not magic. Certainly not out of some obligation to the DNC or Democrat leaders those 90 million clearly don’t have.
The responsibility to move those 90 million towards a vote for a Democrat were the Democrats themselves.
Yet in their failure to do so, they now blame those 90 million voters for not listening to them. Instead of the very clear fact those 90 million are just too poorly educated to understand what Democrats are even saying.
Those 90 million choosing not to vote quite literally proves my point that Democrats blame others for their mistakes, instead of learning from them.
Dems want to believe this country is in a condition where they don’t need to talk at a 5th grade level to get through to the majority of people. But the sad truth is that Trump talking like that won him two elections.
Don’t blame those 90 million just because they voted for an idiot. Blame the Dems for not being able to dumb their policies down enough for the majority of this country to understand that they have a better option.
They will continue to lose elections until they do.
Has there ever been an American election where like 30% of people don’t ignore it?
Has any election in human history had the vast majority of people turn out without it being compulsory?
The Democratic party is over
Ok
Plouffe, who worked as a Harris campaign adviser, has taken aim at Biden obliquely in the past as well.
Feel like this is pretty important context for the statements. Because while I absolutely agree Biden should never have run for a second term, there seems to be a very vocal number of democratic campaign consultants and party officials who really wanted distract you from the fact that they ran a god-awful campaign. I don’t know if this Democratic establishment party could have won with anybody to be honest. Not the way they chose to handle themselves. Frankly I find their behavior to be even worse than Biden’s. The energy and electricity that Harris started her campaign with was transcendent, especially when they added Walz. Then they drove the whole campaign off a cliff. So excuse me if I’m not super sympathetic to the people that decided to run the Hillary Clinton campaign 2.0.
I don’t understand this perspective, no one had any excitement or interest in Biden and Harris had both of those things in spades, not sure what made the campaign “god awful” by engaging the base and drumming up a ton of excitement and money. Anything you can throw out there about not communicating about policy or whatever has to be applied to Trump who also didn’t do those things, especially when you consider dems get raked over the coals for not speaking plainly enough yet she’s supposed to plainly speak about public policy and foreign policy at a very high level? It seems like she was given a literally impossible task if you consider that campaign to be “god awful” of course she failed at an impossible task. Frankly I believe the election had very serious interference and that’s why she lost, and her behavior post election is unforgivable, just disappearing and leaving the American people she claimed she wanted to lead high and dry, she clearly has no desire to be a leader beyond the title and perks or she would be leading them dems now in a resistance against Trump. She’s a failure for sure, her behavior post election proves she was never cut out to be a leader or she would be leading now but running a “god awful campaign” is just dishonest
It was a godawful campaign for one single reason:
It was outdated.
Even worse.
It was outdated the first time they ran it for Hillary on 2016.
By outdated, I simply mean they marketed Kamala to themselves. Just like the marketed Hillary to themselves.
They took the platform and policy messages of each of those candidates, and made them appear “smart, effective, and knowledgeable.”
Since 2016, there are simply not enough educated Americans in this country who can understand that messaging.
The one thing Kamala and Clinton failed to do?
Dumb their message down. Way way down. To the lowest of the lowest denominator.
Both their campaigns refused to even TRY to do that. So they came off to the majority of Americans as arrogant, and unwilling to explain their positions in simple terms, so everyone picked the conman. (As that’s what poorly educated people do).
The one critical flaw in every Democratic campaign is that they assume the majority of Americans are educated enough to understand their policy plans.
They aren’t.
55% of this country literally can’t understand what Kamala or Clinton are saying.
They don’t know how policies work. They don’t know how compromise works. And worst of all, they don’t know how their own government works.
Dems assume the majority of Americans know these things by default. They don’t, so all their campaign messages based on these assumptions get completely lost on anyone but themselves.
Until Democrats understand just how little of this country knows how it functions, they will not be able to communicate their policies effectively. They need to be willing to speak simply, and reduce their policies to 5 word talking points they can blast at every event until it’s burned into the minds of everyone listening.
They see themselves better than that though, so will never act the way they need to if they actually want to gain voters instead of lose them.
Dems simply got so used to being smart, they forgot that’s not always a good thing. Especially in situations where they’re trying to convince a room full of idiots that the room is on fire. Those idiots will die trying to figure out what the smart people mean by “inflammable” as they unknowingly stand in front of and block all the exits.
(inflammable can actually mean “ready to burst into flame” but has a different meaning now because of the effects of stupid people using language over time. I used it to make a point about stupid people driving the future. Dems should take note.)
just disappearing and leaving the American people she claimed she wanted to lead high and dry,
We’re literally talking about a national election where she offered her leadership and America said “No.” lol who sticks around after that?
“Who sticks around after that?”
Bernie did, and he’s still pushing change. Not saying Kamala couldn’t end up in that spot too, but currently she seems to have taken it personal and scurried off into the woods like Hillary did after her awful campaign to lick her wounds. They both seem to have decided that if they couldn’t be queen then it’s not worth really fighting at all.
Hell, Ted Cruz is still “fighting” after losing his presidential running
Someone who actually believes in their own message, and honestly believes that the political agenda they’re working for are important, to the point of putting this things ahead of themselves.
When you lose, you can choose to lie down and give up, or you can pick yourself up and keep fighting. I’m not an ardent critic of Harris, but she clearly chose the former. The same goes for Hillary Clinton. Both these people had/have huge platforms that they could use to front politics and help build up other candidates for future elections, not only presidential, but local, senate and house elections too. They have chosen to disappear from politics instead.
neither of them disappeared they’re just not as loud as they were during the campaign
That is arguably disappearing. After gaining such popularity, deciding not to use your influence for anything you were fighting for is probably not the right choice if you actually believed in the change.
I disagree. The millions of dollars of campaign money that amplifies the candidates voice suddenly goes away… that’s what happens. And the media shifts towards the winning candidate. It happens in literally every single election.
Ted Cruz still uses his influence to fight for his side and he lost a presidential race too. And with great “success” for some earthly reason i can’t begin to fathom.
Also Bernie.
It’s easy to point fingers, and the author isn’t wrong, but I remember the whole democratic party absolutely tone-deaf to their voters campaign after campaign.
It’s not just checking boxes, they had to relate. Harris had an incredible start; an injection of new blood and vigor to the stale humdrum. But for the love of jeebus, will they stop “playing the game” and do f-ing something!
“What’re you going to do, get Trump elected?”
Games can only be played when everyone plays by the rules. Only they are playing the game now, and they are alone at the table.
I think Bernie is the one who would truly have made US great :)
Never forget Bernie’s Legacy
It fucked them because it locked them into Harris, who was also a uniquely awful candidate. It screwed voters out of having a meaningful primary with real debate about issues.
Who else would they have picked? Someone even further right?
Anyone who had a chance to win. “We played the best losing move” doesn’t make you a chess master, it doesn’t even get a ribbon at the fair.
How about Bernie Sanders, for once?
How about someone who isn’t 300 years old?
Bernie should have been wrapping up his 8 year run at this point
Ahh yes, one of the most qualified people to run for the seat, totally an awful candidate.
No, what was awful was the “won’t change” shift, and the courting undesirables from the right. Her campaign fucked up, and now we’re left with a literal fucking Nazi Fascist admin.
She’s new Hillary. They ran Hillary against him again but younger and with a tan. Instead of of allowing the possibility of Sanders in 2016 or AOC in 2024 they threw “the game” twice.
So qualified she dropped out of primaries in 2020 at 3% in the polls. She was a tool the entire time. No one with half a brain wanted to vote for her, they just didn’t have a fucking choice.
Wait, Biden won that primary, so he was clearly the right choice for 2024??
Your logic seems folded.
Pete is also an incredibly qualified person and dropped out, too. Just because people didn’t vote for her, doesn’t mean she isn’t qualified. It means many voters are stupid. Case in point, the current president and his 75+ million fascist voters.
I swear to god if they run Pete (which seems like he’s gearing up for it) I will explode from sheer rage. Pete has nothing to offer but more of the same. I hate hearing people pretend like he has a chance. It’s absolute delusion and is exactly the problem with all the other democrats. He is uninspiring and we will loose and it will be our fault.
Medicare for all who want it. Lmaoooooooooo. So upsetting. I’ve never heard a democrat say something more cringe and I watched Hillary say Pokémon go to the polls live.
Your main point that dropping out does not equate to being a bad candidate is valid though.
Stupid voters or not, the job by definition requires you get the votes. If you can’t pull votes you are unqualified. It’s not a trick statement it’s in the job description.
That was 4 years before she, you know, was vice president for 4 years. That tends to provide valuable experience.
I’m not gonna pretend I liked her but she wasn’t a bad candidate to begin a campaign with. But then she ran to the right in an insane way
Polished turds are just shiny turds. She was always unlikable, people only latched on to her because of the despair Biden had the party in before he dropped out. It was a simple overcorrection in sentiment that wasted away from her failure to inspire anything, just like she failed in 2020. No amount of on the job experience teaches the lessons she failed to learn twice.
If you think even 50% of her campaign decision making reflected her personal politics you are mistaken about how the DNC operates.
As I said, on paper she was a fine candidate to start a campaign with. She could have easily converted a win if the party as a whole hadn’t totally rejected anything progressive long before she took to the campaign trail.
People forget that after you get elected you still have to collaborate with Congress. Presidential candidates are absolutely beholden to the will of the DNC, and their party platform. They will not hesitate to torpedo a presidency as retaliation for failing to toe the company line
“concerns about Biden’s mobility were so dire, advisers considered having him use a wheelchair during the campaign.”
What the what?
Biden Aides Discussed Putting Him in a Wheelchair for Potential Second Term: Book
Crazy. See FDR got away with it, they would stage photos and prop him up, cover the wheelchair with a blanket. But that’s impossible now that social media is a thing.
Yikes. I did a full news and politics cleanse during trumps first administration and was not paying a ton of attention during Bidens term. Had no idea it was that bad.
I was paying attention.
It was not, in fact, that bad.
