Posted on 11/08/2024 6:15:43 PM PST by TigerClaws
Kamala Harris’ 2024 campaign started out fun. It opened with the politics of joy, and a hearty dose of mockery aimed at Donald Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance. The campaign quickly adopted a different tack — attempting to project strength and leadership, while courting support from Republicans concerned about the threat posed by Trump.
That approach culminated with Harris campaigning with former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney and touting an endorsement from her father, former Vice President and Iraq War architect Dick Cheney. The pitch bombed with Republicans, as Democrats’ share of moderates and independents fell and overall Democratic support crumbled, too.
Now, several Democratic operatives and insiders tell Rolling Stone they tried to convince the Harris campaign and her allies that palling around with the Cheneys was a bad idea with little upside — and could harm Harris’ support among disaffected Democratic voters. The sources requested anonymity to discuss sensitive intraparty matters.
One source close to the Harris campaign tells Rolling Stone they reached out to several staffers in and around the campaign to voice concerns about the candidate embracing Dick and Liz Cheney.
“People don’t want to be in a coalition with the devil,” says the source, speaking about Dick Cheney. They say a Harris staffer responded that it was not the staff’s role to challenge the campaign’s decisions.
A Democratic strategist says they warned key Harris surrogates and top-level officials at the Democratic National Committee that campaigning with Liz Cheney — and making the campaign’s closing argument about how many Republicans were supporting Harris — was highly unlikely to motivate any new swing voters, and risked dissuading already-despondent, infrequent Democratic voters who had supported Biden in 2020. The strategist says they also attempted to have big donors and battleground state party chairs convey the same argument to the Harris campaign.
Another Democratic operative close to Harrisworld says they sent memos and data to Harris campaign staffers underscoring how, among other things, Republican voters, believe it or not, vote Republican — and that the data over the past year screamed that Democrats instead needed to reassure and energize the liberal base and Dem-leaning working class in battleground states. “We were told, basically, to get lost, no thank you,” says the operative.
A Harris spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Following the Harris campaign’s crushing loss to Trump, there’s an argument to be made that Democrats never really stood a chance this election cycle, given Joe Biden’s unpopularity and Americans’ unhappiness with a brutal economy.
But Harris exerted far more effort attempting to appeal to Republicans, moderates, and independents than the Democratic base — which has been demoralized, in part, by Biden’s continued support for Israel’s brutal war in Gaza.
Exit polls suggest Democrats had major turnout issues; the portion of the 2024 electorate that identified as Democrat declined significantly compared to past presidential elections.
Former White House Press Secretary and MSNBC host Jen Psaki said Friday on Morning Joe that Democrats had spent too much time listening to and lifting up Republicans who left Trump and the Never Trump movement.
“The people who left the Democratic Party are the people who are going to win in the future,” she said. “The people who left Trump, the Never Trumpers — who have important voices — that is not a winning coalition.”
I agree. It was a complete sell out of the DNC’s talking points during the Bush era and just confirmed a lot of hypocrisy.
I didn’t mind it.
She was blown out in her House primary election.
She looked like a deflated jerk on the January 6 kangaroo committee.
Her old man left office with about a 12% approval rating.
Love this, Cheney did much more harm than good to Caramella’s campaign and she’s now poison in both parties!
Love this, Cheney did much more harm than good to Caramella’s campaign and she’s now poison in both camps!
Lizard lost Wyo. [again] by Trump getting > 72%.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
The delicious Cognitive Dissonance that Liz Cheney induced in Leftists as they tried to rationalize their alliance with her must have been akin to a bowling ball rolling around inside their empty heads, smashing anything it might have come into contact with by chance.
If you looked closely at them, you could almost see their eyes occasionally twitch as the bowling ball rolled over their optical nerves as it blundered blindly about in those cavernous empty spaces...
May it drive them mad.
She offended her far left base to pander to a never-Trumper, only to find out the “Liz Cheney wing” of the Republican party can fit in a Volkswagen.
Long story short, Kamala was just as clueless behind the scenes as she was in public.
“Nothing Comes To Mind.” No one could say it better.
The Never Trumpers got tons of mass media coverage for years—way out of proportion to their strength in flyover country (think swing states).
The out of touch Harris staffers consumed that mass media and were brainwashed by it.
Wyoming Republicans are some of my favorite people.
They handled both elections very well.😀
Rolling Stone is wrong here “The portion of the 2024 electorate that identified as Democrat declined significantly compared to past presidential elections.”
I have seen graphics showing that Democrat turnout EXCEPT FOR 2020 is remarkably steady.
Gee, what was different about 2020?????
Rolling Stone is wrong here “The portion of the 2024 electorate that identified as Democrat declined significantly compared to past presidential elections.”
I have seen graphics showing that Democrat turnout EXCEPT FOR 2020 is remarkably steady.
Gee, what was different about 2020?????
>> It was a complete sell out of the DNC’s talking points during the Bush era and just confirmed a lot of hypocrisy.
Between the obscenely high polling numbers saying “America is on the wrong track” and the yuge gains in Republican identification, the ‘Rats election loss die was already cast and they were damned if they did, damned if they didn’t court the ex-R losers.
But I’m glad they did; it gives them another set of bodies to take bullets in their circular firing squad of recriminations, and I suspect it means we’ll never have to endure any more hectoring from that satanic skank Liz Cheney (or her sister Adam Kinzinger).
Surrrrrrrrre they did.
Good point.
This hurt Harris with Muslims in Michigan - who either voted Trump or stayed home.
Harris ran as a ‘change candidate’ but was up there with Cheney? Huh??
Whole thing was moronic.
Dems think they ‘own’ voting groups - blacks, Muslims, Jews, gays - and they expand the base getting some turncoat Republican to campaign for them?
I don’t think Democrats learned anything from this election. Their problem is the crazies have taken over their party.
They played themselves. As others have observed.
How glorious is this?? Lez Cheney can go to bed every night the next four years knowing she was responsible for DJT’s landlside victory!!!
In the end we must thank pelosi and cheney!!!
I’m really enjoying all these “Dims eating Dims” stories. The best part is that only a couple have figured out any real reasons. Most of them are just stories about how stupid voters were, or about how some stabbed others in the back, or how nobody took their great advice.
I don’t think anyone paid any attention to Liz being with Harris. Just another harridan female on the political hustings with Harris.
The Ratters are fooling themselves if they think it had any effect.
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