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Clinton also went for a broad church approach despite going hard against the right wing of the Republican party. She intentionally tried to appeal to an imaginary subset of Sensible Republicans. She, like Harris, is a classic centrist and can't help but try to appeal to both sides. Which means all they have is vibes, and can't really meaningfully appeal to anyone.
As a side note: Biden didn't step down, he was pushed. If you're going to push your current candidate to their death, maybe have someone lined up who isn't a shoo-in for the same kind of hiding you got 4 years prior. Getting rid of Biden was an act of blind panic with zero strategy behind it. Not saying that retaining Biden would have been any better, but maybe someone in the party should have thought about this shit in advance given the stakes involved.
Eejit-
Not saying that retaining Biden would have been any better
Not only would the election have been a complete and total walloping, the world wouldn’t have had a grace period where it seemed like a reasonable person could win the presidency.
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If you're going to push your current candidate to their death, maybe have someone lined up who isn't a shoo-in for the same kind of hiding you got 4 years prior. Getting rid of Biden was an act of blind panic with zero strategy behind it. Not saying that retaining Biden would have been any better, but maybe someone in the party should have thought about this shit in advance given the stakes involved.
I think this is an important point. They massively blundered on trying to keep Biden strapped to his horse, El Cid style, when it was increasingly obvious to everyone that he was a decade past his sell by date.
What I read was that the family were keen to keep him going for the prestige and the brown envelopes, they kept the party away from him, and there wasn't a process for getting him to stand down.
That meant they were 6-12 months too late in switching, didn't have time to run a primary process, so were stuck with a weak candidate - who some people say Biden picked deliberately as his insurance policy against getting ousted.
It was still hers to lose. If she had had the courage or vision to disavow just a couple of Genocide Joe's policies, she probably could have done it. She said a few words early on, but most likely crumbled - in the face of what tbf was probably extreme pressure - to be continuity Biden, and sealed her fate.
Muc-ed-off
frank9755
I'm still not sure.
Harris banged on endlessly about the broad tent, vs Hilary's basket of deplorables. She put a lot more groundwork in too. Also I'm unconvinced that there was another choice when Biden stepped down, so I'm not sure about characterising it as trying the same thing twice.