Contrary to the Dems, the pundits, and the Dem lap dog media, the election was not as close as it was anticipated and reported to be. In fact, Kamala Harris suffered a substantial beatdown not able to equal Joe Biden’s 2020 performance in a single county in any state.
Turn the page, baby.
Donald Trump won the White House, the popular vote, carried every battleground state, and broke the vaunted Blue Wall whilst the Republicans gained control of the Senate and retained the House. Boom. That is a win for the ages.
But, why, Big Red Car?
Ahhh, dear reader, like many things in life, there is a simple and a complex reason.
The simple reason
The simple reason is Kamala Harris — in a truncated 107 day campaign — never connected with the voters and they found her to be inauthentic with a garbled and confusing message while blaming her for the price of groceries and the cost of gasoline.
The complex reasons
The complex reasons flesh out the simple reason.
The candidate
Kamala Harris burst onto the political scene at the national level because Joe Biden vowed to select a “woman of color” as his Vice President and running mate without even a whiff of consideration that she would be the “best” possible Vice President and ready to run the country in the event of his incapacity. She just had to be a woman and of color.
Kamala had a checkered past having been elevated to the office of Attorney General of California (which she used as a springboard to the US Senate) in no small measure due to her sexual and romantic liaison with a powerful politician, Willie Brown. She conducted an open affair with this married man and received appointments to powerful paid commissions and a BMW. She was a woman who did her best work under Willie Brown.
Kamala has an offputting personal style (word salad-ish) with a cackling, often inappropriate, laugh that grates on people’s nerves. On the other hand, the camera is quite kind to her and she is photogenic and looks better than Hillary in a pants suit. (Not running the high hurdles are we with the Hillary pants suit exemplar, eh?)
The process
Kamala Harris did not come to the nomination through a rigorous process in which she earned the opportunity by national exposure to the Dem nomination process and voters. When the elites — Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and George Clooney — decided Joe Biden was, in fact, too mentally impaired to compete after a disastrous debate performance, they simply annointed Kamala Harris.
By being annointed, she missed the opportunity to fashion and develop a fierce, targeted campaign message and to hone her campaigning skills. The idea she could fashion a winning campaign in 107 days was ill-advised though she did raise more than a billion dollars.
The manner in which Joe Biden was forced to walk the plank taken together with the behind-the-scenes anointing of Kamala by the elites left the smell of sulphur in the room and she was never able to dissipate that sense she was the machine candidate and not the people’s choice.
The Biden/Harris track record
Kamala Harris was new on the scene, but she dragged with her the track record of the Biden/Harris administration that saw her tasked with important responsibilities such as the border — yes, she was the Border Czar — and the roll out of rural internet. At both of these assignements, her personal track record was a disaster and she was unable to articulate a credible defense.
Her first defense on the border — “I wasn’t the Border Czar” — acknowledged there was a problem, a gargantuan problem, but pretended she had had nothing to do with it. It was amateurish.
The Biden/Harris track record was subject to fact-based, rational, and ardent criticism on border security, immigration, the economy, crime, energy, censorship, and foreign affairs. The primary foreign affairs criticism was the perception that American policy was drawing us nigh to another world war.
While these are broad themes, the performance of the Biden/Harris admin showed up in painful detail in the grocery checkout line, at the gas pump, and in the housing industry — three considerations that touch every voter in the country. Inflation was felt by every American and it was generally agreed that the Biden/Harris administration had made serious blunders that caused the inflation.
This was a confrontation of the Trump and Biden/Harris track records and Kamala lost that contest.
Messaging
It was never quite clear exactly what the argument was for hiring Kamala Harris as President of the United States. At first, she was all about joy and turning the page in an Obamaesque redux of hope and change. Folks found that shallow.
When that failed to gain traction, she hamhandedly claimed to be a change agent, but it was the Biden/Harris administration from which she desired to change? That message was illogical.
Her strongest argument was that she was neither Joe Biden nor Donald Trump and that Donald Trump was a threat to democray and Hitler. The Trump is Hitler argument was neither true nor did anyone buy it.
Like many politicians, Kamala Harris depended upon endorsements from politicians, celebrities, actors, and entertainers. One of the big reactions at the ballot box was that voters, when confronted with the earthy reality of the high price of eggs, do not care who Taylor Swift or Magic Johnson favors for President.
Kamala, I endorse you. Where’s my money, honey?
The issues
From the beginning, the electorate signalled this election was about the economy and from the beginning the Kamala Harris campaign campaigned on abortion.
It is worth noting that Kamala suffered a decline in the Dem advantage amongst women from 15% in 2020 for Biden to less than half that amount in 2024. Abortion got a lot of play in the media, but it was a dud at the ballot box.
Kamala, the pundits, the lapdog media all collectively tried to gaslight America that this election was about abortion and Trump’s threat to democracy, but it was about the economy.
The resounding question: Are you better off today than you were four years ago? was answered by a rock solid NO NO NO NO.
Engagement
With only 107 days from The Anointing to Election Day, Kamala Harris was under pressure from day one, but she compounded the challenge by failing to engage — no interviews, no press contact, and a limited number of campaign events and softball interviews with odd outlets.
[Kamala went on the Call Me Daddy podcast for 20 minutes that received 600,000 hits whilst Donald Trump went on the Joe Rogan Experience for 3 hours that received almost 50,000,000 hits. Boom!]
Some will say this was a reflection of the successful Biden strategy on engagement.
Conversely, Donald Trump was the Energizer Bunny with a robust schedule of appearances, interviews, and campaign events. The Trump – Rogan interview (three hours of free flowing conversation on everything in which Trump displayed a flawless command of the issues and his strategy) and the refusal of Kamala Harris to sit with Rogan for a similar interview is the heart of the argument.
The public did not know Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris parsimonously rationed out contact and when people began to evaluate her on even these short rations, they did not like her.
In it to win it
From the beginning Kamala Harris flip-flopped on issues she had taken strong and unmistakable stands on during her ill-fated run for the nomination in 2020. Fracking is the one that will come to mind. Her policy — either the former or the latter — cost her Pennsylvania.
She was perceived as a person who would say and do whatever was necessary to be elected. Bernie Sanders vouched for her on this score saying she was just saying what had to be said to be elected and that after the election she would return to being a reliable far left progressive.
Tim Walz, Vice President candidate
Tim Walz proved to be a drag on the campaign, so much so that he literally disappeared from sight at the end. He was a dud. He brought more problems than he solved.
OMG, you are such a clown. <<< which one is talking?
In retrospect, the decision not to select Josh Shapiro, Governor of Pennsylvania, seems to be an unforced error that cost Kamala Harris Pennsylbania and the election.
Walz reinforced the perception that Kamala was a phony as he was even worse.
Minor irritants and observations
Barack Obama confronted black men — a demographic that proved disastrous for her in the actual election — and scolded them that they had to vote for Kamala as she was the black candidate. Black men did not think she was black and they did not embrace being scolded by a half-black elitist. The Obama magic is gone.
Celebrity endorsements — apparently all bought with campaign funds — did not gain traction when the issue was the price of groceries and gas. In fact, this tactic demonstrated repeatedly how out of touch Kamala Harris was.
The attacks on Trump — the coordinated and orchestrated lawfare in particular — made him an infinitely more sympathetic candidate. The assassination attempts exuded an aura of toughness.
The media, the pundits, the pollsters did all they could to nudge the electorate toward Kamala Harris and have now crossed a threshold of dishonesty leaving them complete unburdened by integrity, ethics, or truth.
Yikes, Big Red Car, bottom line it, we’re getting a foot massage in 15 minutes
The bottom line is this: you cannot fool the American people when it comes to groceries and bedrock issues. They can smell a phony from 5 miles away upwind.
But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car. God bless us all.