Election Thoughts

1. Biden didn't do Harris any favors by not following the plan of being a transition President. Trump had 4 years to architect and communicate his plan and Harris was given 107 days. 
2. Harris lost the popular vote which is seismic. Democrats have to figure out the reason for that. I think in part, the reasons are:

• Dems didn’t have a good response for the issues Trump made this election about. Primarily immigration and especially the economy. A lot of people seemed to express thoughts like “I don’t really like him (Trump) but voted for him anyway”. Specific to the economy I think people translate that to price at the pump and inflation, both of which were problematic. This is despite the fact the GDP was better under Biden than Trump as well as the trade deficit.
• The other reason is I think some # of people won’t vote for a woman, a black person, a black woman under any circumstances

3. I agree with KC Mayor Lucas the issue isn’t that the American people are valuing the wrong thing (even if it’s true) but rather how do you get them to receive your message better.
​4. And finally, it occurred to me that Harris’s choice of VP may have also had an impact. While I’m not sure how many people would base a vote on the VP selected, I do think that Waltz’s “folksy charm” didn’t play as well as they had hoped. Rather, a younger, more polished VP appealing to the middle may have resonated better.