The DNC blew it. Here's how and why. [View all]

[hawkeye21]

First, we love Joe, and his 2020 win was fabulous. But he should have announced a year or two ago that he would not seek a second term.

Second, the DNC should have had the data that the country isn't ready for a woman as president. India, Pakistan, New Zealand, and most others have elected female presidents decades ago, but the US is clearly not there yet.

Third, don't nominate a woman from California, a state we have in the bag, who can be tied to the low popularity ratings of Joe Biden--unfair but true--and to the Biden administration and the border, inflation, etc.

Fourth, nominate people who have no direct ties to DC or the Biden administration. (See above.)

Fifth, choose a ticket of governors from battleground states: Josh Shapiro (PA), Gretchen Whitmer (MI), Tim Walz (MN). And, of course, Whitmer could not lead the ticket because, well, she's a woman. So we might have had a Shapiro-Walz ticket, a Walz-Shapiro ticket, a Shapiro-Whitmer ticket, or a Walz-Whitmer ticket. It appears we could have won with any of those tickets, although I might have gone Shapiro-Whitmer with Shapiro-Walz a close second.

I've never been especially politcally active, but I have paid attention. And I am shocked that the outspoken and vastly experienced James Carville and the leaders of the DNC, the Obamas and so on, weren't able to have plans in place to make sure the Democrats won the most vital election since at least the Civil War. It should have been possible to run a broomstick and a skateboard and beat the worst ticket in the history of American presidential politics, but that's disregarding the reality of the MAGA cult. We knew the opponent. We knew Trump was right when he said he could do literally anything and he'd still get nearly half the country to vote for him. So when you know that, you have to develop the strategy to counter it. Nominating a black woman who was part of the unpopular incumbent administration and from California made no sense in that context, despite the fact Kamala--on her own--was a fabulous candidate and would have made a wonderful president.

Anyway, instead of getting it right and saving our democracy, we now have the greatest fight on our hands since the Civil War, with no end in sight. At least, that's how I see it.