There’s plenty of blame to go around.
First and foremost— Biden not making plans to step aside starting in 2022. He ran on being a one term president and he reneged on that idea. Whether it was arrogance, hubris, naivete or a combination of all three, this was the first major blunder that led to last night.
Next, when it was obvious that Biden wasn’t up to task anymore, the rushed coronation of Kamala without the slightest amount of public discourse probably left a bad taste in the mouths of many Dems (and potentially independents). I get that a quick decision had to be made, so this is collateral damage to Biden not stepping aside sooner.
I get that she’s the sitting VP and has impressive credentials, but she was one of the earliest dem primary candidates eliminated in 2020. She was extremely unpopular, so I’ll always question why they went to her with other options on the table like Shapiro and Beshear. Both are very well liked in their states and neither can be painted as a “coastal elite” like Kamala. Again, if Biden had stepped aside sooner and there was a true primary earlier this year I think either of them would have blown Kamala out of the water during that process.
Once Kamala was announced, not naming Shapiro or Beshear as VP was probably the second biggest blunder behind Biden not stepping aside. With Shapiro you lock down Pennsylvania in the must-win state for both candidates. I get that Walz is folksy and is popular, but when you see him on tv he doesn’t scream “National candidate”. Governor/congress, I totally get it.
But the real nail in the coffin was not distancing herself from Biden once she started out on the trail. I get that she was not trying to shit on her boss and as VP it wasn’t her agenda, but the writing was on the wall that the electorate was not happy and she needed to show how she was going to be an agent of change. And she never did and she was blown out last night as a result. I think she had a good economic policy, but she was totally ineffective with her messaging strategy.