The DNC blew it. Here's how and why.

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15. "It appears we could have won with any of those tickets."

I think that is unknowable, but probably not the case.

I think the result of this election was baked in a long time ago by the perception of a sizable part of the electorate that the Biden administration had failed them. Is that perception justified? No. But it would be naive to pretend that more than half the voters, including a not-insignificant percentage of voters who identify as Democrats, viewed the administration unfavorably. Those are strong headwinds to overcome. And while it would have been particularly hard for Harris to separate herself from the administration that she was part of, it also would have been difficult for Stein or Walz etc to run a campaign that was particularly critical of the administration. And trying to educate voters and convince them that they shouldn't be dissatisfied and/or should be more afraid of what a Trump administration would do to them -- well that's what Harris tried and I don't see why/how it would be more successful carried out by others.

Simply put, this was an election in which most voters were looking backward, not forward. They didn't like what they felt about the past four years, facts be damned.