Vice President Harris could win the presidential election next week. But fingers in Democratic circles are already being pointed behind the scenes, in the event that she falls to former President Trump.
While some Democrats say they are increasingly hopeful that Harris will win, others have expressed mounting frustration about a string of factors that have plagued the campaign from the outset.
Fingers are being pointed at Harris and her campaign when it comes to disappointment over her messaging, particularly on the economy.
But some Democrats have already looked to pin the blame on President Biden, who some think took too long to step aside.
"People are nervous and they're trying to cover their butt and get a little ahead of Election Day," one Democratic strategist said of the sniping. "It's based on anxiety, stakes and the unique nature of this cycle.
"We didn't have a traditional process for this election. We didn't have a primary. People just had to fall in line," the strategist added, saying "it's not surprising to me" that some of the blame game is happening even before Election Day.
If Harris loses, "there will be a mad dash to assign blame," the strategist added.
The vice president's decision to pick Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) as her running mate over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) surely will be second-guessed if Trump wins the Keystone State.
"[Harris] is going to look real silly for not picking Shapiro," one former aide in the Obama White House said.
A Democratic donor agreed: "I'm not sure Walz got her anything. A lot of people I'm talking to say he seems like a great guy. Would I want to have a beer with him? Absolutely. But let's face it, he wasn't a great choice."
Biden put himself squarely in the news cycle on Tuesday evening when he appeared to liken Trump supporters to garbage.
The president walked back the remarks, and the White House insisted they had been taken out of context. Either way, they stepped on a largely successful speech by Harris on the Ellipse in Washington. The speech, which Harris delivered with the White House as a backdrop, was a pivotal moment in the final stretch of the campaign because it represented her closing argument for herself and against Trump.
It is nearly impossible to believe the comments did not greatly irritate the Harris campaign, though the vice president said the issue did not come up when she spoke to Biden on Tuesday night.
"Talk about an unforced error and so close to the end," one strategist said. "How could anyone not be annoyed by that?"
On Wednesday, Harris was still cleaning up Biden's comments.
"First of all, he clarified his comments, but let me be clear. I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for," Harris told reporters as she departed for a three-state campaign swing.
Harris has kept Biden at a distance during the final stretch of the campaign, even as she has appeared alongside surrogates, including former President Obama. The move has irked Biden loyalists who say the president had a successful administration and should be out there — however awkward — to help campaign for his vice president.
"He should be out there," one loyalist said. "The reason she's where she is, is because of him."
But even before Biden's "garbage" comment, there were whispers he would be responsible for a Harris defeat.
These voices say Biden's withdrawal from the race in late July didn't do Harris any favors since she hasn't had enough time to properly telegraph her biography.
Others said he never should have run for reelection, and that he should have allowed the party to have a full primary to pick his successor.
The unusual part about the quiet finger pointing going on is that Harris could very well be elected the next president next week.
She leads in most national polls and continues to lead in various polls of key swing states. New CNN polling released Wednesday found Harris with a 6-point lead in Wisconsin and a 5-point lead in Michigan. The new polling found the two candidates tied in Pennsylvania.
If Harris wins all three states, she will almost certainly win the election.
"Harris is closing strong with big energy moments and rising momentum," Democratic strategist Joel Payne said. "She's the more popular candidate, she has a broader coalition and she's got a higher ceiling than Trump.
"Democratic anxiety is understandable because of the threat of a Trump second term, but there's a lot to feel good about related to Kamala Harris and Democrats up and down the ballot coming down the stretch," Payne added.
At the same time, the race is incredibly close, meaning either candidate has a strong chance of winning and neither side can feel all that certain.
That creates nervousness and paranoia, a perfect atmosphere for second-guessing and backbiting.
There will be second-guessing if Trump loses, too.
The former president has doubled down on caustic speech in a bid to bolster his support among men, which could lose him critical female voters — where Harris enjoys a large lead.
If Harris wins, Republicans will second-guess their decision to ride with Trump through a third presidential cycle. They'll also wonder why he had to hold that rally on Sunday at Madison Square Garden, where a comedian's off-color jokes about Latinx and Puerto Rico won negative attention.
"It's a terrible look for the campaign," one Republican strategist said. "He should stick to the message and only the message. If we go off of it, he'll lose."
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Really? Voters not actually knowing what she was like was her biggest asset.
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Sure, but the blame here is that since Biden didn't drop out earlier, the democrats weren't able to hold an actual primary, which is how Harris got slipped into the candidacy in the first place.
I don't think for a second that if Biden had announced last summer that he wasn't seeking reelection and the Dems had a primary, that Kalama would have actually won it.
Aside from her being personally unlikable and quite far to the left, she's also tainted with this current administration, which she was unquestionably a significant part of.
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I kind of doubt this. I bet she's actually had very little to do with anything. She wasn't selected for her political acumen. The VP is essentially a ceremonial job. They only do as much as the president wants. She still deserves the negative stigma by being attached though.
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Biden clearly isn't mentally sound enough to be doing the job the president is supposed to be doing. If Harris isn't doing it, who is?
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I don't think anyone is really in charge. The Biden admin seems like a chaotic cacophony of staffers doing whatever they feel like.
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Sure, but she hasn't made any attempt to distance herself from it. In fact when asked if she'd do anything differently, she responds with "no". If that's not an endorsement of the current administration's policies, I'm not sure what is.
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Don't worry, I'm sure they're getting their extra ballot printers ready.
Democrat voters on the way to the polls:
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I would totally have a beer with Walz just because I know he'd tell the story a few years later and include a bit about how a fistfight broke out, and he and I fought off a whole biker gang together.
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Read: finding a man to blame
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It's not even pointing fingers, it's "pointing away" from fingers to not point them in their direction
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The idea that some Dems think Walz might be the main problem on the ticket is extremely funny.
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The idea that anyone was ever going to vote for a man called "Walz" is extremely funny.
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I blame white "people"
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You do that for everything.
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And he's right at least half the time
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The campaign and its supporters are taking a victory lap early, anticipating the other side's meltdown. Their poll numbers are inflated by low-propensity voters, especially young people. They're so confident that their candidate is campaigning in non-swing states to run up the popular vote totals, while neglecting states they actually need to win. Their supporters' smug levels are off the charts even as the actual numbers show a different picture.
This is Hillary 2.0. You have been warned !chuds
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Who wins? Who knows?
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i mean you could blame biden especially with his tendencies, but honestly kamala just needs to be not uh
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Sure, I COULD enjoy a beer with Walz, but I feel like he'd just bicker the entire time about how much of a beer snob he is in some vain attempt to fit in and not look like the giant cute twink that he is.
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"Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river."
Snapshots:
https://old.reddit.com/r/moderatepolitics/comments/1gggv6f/democrats_start_to_point_fingers_even_as_they/:
undelete.pullpush.io
ghostarchive.org
archive.org
archive.ph (click to archive)
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