[Onawa]

Harris would have had an uphill battle even if she had a full campaign cycle. After quizzing many conservatives, I unfortunately heard entirely too many responses of, "women leaders are unstable", "wouldn't be respected on the world stage", "she fakes her accent(s)", "I don't even know what she campaigned on", and other mind-boggling reasons they wouldn't vote for her.

At this point, I have lost all faith in the American electorate to rise above bigotry and see past social media propaganda.

[platevoltage]

I generally have a cynical view of the people in this country, but I’m not ready to believe that a mixed race woman would have an uphill battle against a felon who already did a bad job once. Obama had an uphill battle, but he said the right things. Harris couldn’t even do that because she was only interested in Republican votes, not Leftist votes.

[deeg]

Maybe. On the other hand the only times Trump won was against a woman.

[platevoltage]

One of those women was universally hated, but actually got more votes than him, the other had the stink of being part of the previous administration on her.

[AnimalMuppet]

And Biden was not, shall we say, an inspiring candidate.

On the other other hand, Biden won when the first-hand memory of what Trump was like was very fresh.

[RajT88]

I have one conservative friend who insists she is stupid and has none of her own opinions (just a mini-Biden). Mind boggling indeed.

[mandeepj]

> friend who insists she is stupid

I believe she did great during her nomination acceptance speech and during debate as well. But, you can’t make people understand something if they don’t want to.

[platevoltage]

I'm not her biggest fan, but yes, she did good in her debate and acceptance speech.

[Nursie]

> has none of her own opinions (just a mini-Biden)

She did mess up an opportunity to show that she wasn't just Biden v2 in an interview at some point, when asked what she might have done differently, there was nothing she could think of. Nothing at all.

That was an open goal to differentiate that she missed.

But I'm not sure it would have made a difference.

[mandeepj]

> But I'm not sure it would have made a difference.

If she’d have given an eloquent response, at least she’d have escaped the damage she had got onto herself by saying nothing or no change.

She could have handled similar to how JD handled 2020 election integrity or peaceful transfer questions.

[platevoltage]

I struggle to think of anything she could have said.

As much as this feels crazy to say, Biden was the most progressive president we've ever had in modern times.

She could have said that she would address some of the many boogie-men that the republicans created. I don't see how that would have helped. She was already running as a 90's republican to begin with.

She could have said she would push for universal healthcare, which she was not willing to do.

She could have said she would re-evaluate our relationship with Israel, that was not going to happen.

She would get student load forgiveness done. Hard to believe given all of the roadblocks there.

The only thing I can think of is saying she would get cannabis legalized. Definite missed opportunity there.

[Nursie]

> I struggle to think of anything she could have said.

Me too, but that's why I'm not a politician with a legion of advisers :)

I get that she didn't want to bad-mouth Joe or accidentally criticise her own record as VP in the process.

I think the cannabis one might have made some difference - it's clear that the US is ready for it, she could have declared she wanted to hand the power to the states to make their own decisions by legalising it at a federal level, that sort of thing. Hard to tell even in hindsight!

[RajT88]

Probably not. And while there's some angle which it's fair to claim she's Biden v2, much of what my friend was sending me was edited clips making her seem like she was babbling nonsense (like the left does with Trump, except they don't have to edit the clips).

I always try to explain to him that these people he's complaining about are not exactly beloved by progressives, and that the issues they have with the candidates do not at all resemble the perception the right wing is trying to push. Progressives for example find Harris to be smart and capable, just part of the justice system which prioritizes conviction metrics over actual justice.