No other answer is needed. Whether we win or lose, the reason is always turnout. Apparently, enough people who would have voted for her simply stayed home and their non-votes went to Trump.

Feh!

We did not vote in large enough numbers to elect our own candidate.

Why was that? What can we do to change that?

As always, I will be voting for the Democrat, whoever the candidate turns out to be. Why? Because when Democrats win, we move forward. When they do not, we get Trumped every time. Fuck that shit!

but Gavin Newsom is NOT my first choice. I'd prefer Chris Murphy or Mark Kelly, TYVM. I like Newsom and will vote for him if he's nominated, but he strikes me as just a bit too slick, although his press office does a great job of trolling Shitler.

44% disapproval rating in his own State. No thank you.

excellent manhandling of Trump.

I wouldn’t trust many polls showing him with a bad approval here since there are those who are fighting the party and call that “progressive.” They could taint those numbers since they only focus on certain often unattainable wishlists.

taking it right to the bully. He is awesome.

The beard makes him looked distinguished. I like Pritzger too.

We need an open primary without backroom deals. 2028 will be a change election. Different is better.

Conventions are conventions. Sorry if you don't like the way it works.

Different can be better, but it isn't always.

Does the Mango deserve a Peace prize, of any kind?

And they were people who surprised me a lot when they said that.
They all agreed Harris was qualified, but Walz was "more approachable".

Although, the timing of Biden’s withdrawal from the race was also a huge factor as well.

The majority of Americans support progressive policies, with exceptions only for immigration and the overblown niche issue of teen trans athletes.

Otherwise, Americans want Medicare For All, reproductive rights, minimum wage increase, child tax credit, climate change mitigation, marriage equality, voting rights, increased taxes on the rich etc.

They support all these progressive policies despite the majority of Americans identifying politically as moderates or conservatives.

All he seems to is trawl for articles about how Democrats are fucking up, and reposts them. Don't read anything he puts out. Lots of folks must though.

We know why Democrats actually won
and how Republicans criminally turned
it into a "loss."

… issues as much as we sometimes think - or wish - they might. When polled specifically on issues like LGBTQ rights, most will have a supportive, live and let live attitude. But it is way down on their list of priorities. If they are not affected directly or close to home, they have a lot of other things more important “to them” going on.

Freedom and democracy and liberty and Justice for all? Because they do their own research. From their handpicked sources? What did I win?

Who gets the blame too often? Democratic elves who actually do the work year-round. Too right too left not moderate enough not progressive enough whatabout messaging that nobody listens to anyway because they've already made up their minds, I have to be inspired, I want change, not having the power and votes is an excuse, nobody listens to me ...

The Democratic Party is a regular political party and Republicans are ideological extremists who don't even know how government works and Santa driving the sleigh is insane.

the middle class will be so weak that they can't fight back and take the country back.

only works for Republicans.

The problem in 2024 was that Biden thought he could win.

I’ll say it until I’m blue in the face, all of our focus and talking points should be about the class war. Don’t fall into the stupid culture war trap and redirect every question and conversation along those lines to the class war.

Working class.
Working class.
Working class.

But this means the Democrats must sever all ties to the big monied, ruling class interests and I just don’t see that happening.

Republicans love to talk about culture war. They paint a picture of Democrats caring about transgender bathroom issues more than anything else, and they "flood the zone" with this image 24/7. Mamdani overcame this by proposing economic changes that caught attention. His proposals dominated the conversation even if there was criticism.

Democrats cannot simply defend the economic status quo. They must be aggressive and offer specific ideas. Go full Mamdani!

NOPE

Focusing on not being the big business party and on showing concern for poor people. Unfortunately they went with Trump instead.

what is being said.

Immigration being one of the biggest issues. We need to come off as tough and strict in our position. Otherwise it becomes easy for the right wing to take advantage of the issue.

Bill Clinton and Obama would have done it.

In the end we need to do whatever we need to win.

...MESSAGING.
The leadership of the party let the Rs frame the debate with immigration, "open borders", high grocery prices, DEI, and so on.
That's all they had and they still sold that box of spoiled vegetables because we couldn't adequately sell better plans that helped more people.

and go even FARTHER to the right than they are???

Pro-slavery!
Death penalty for unionists!
Beat-Your-Wife Fridays!
Health-Care-Lottery (held every Sunday, guaranteed winner every week!)
Education for whites only

i mean, if the point isn’t the actual positions but only the winning…why not?

Stop trying to be repukes Dems! Fight for the values you espouse rather than capitulate

In 2024 there was some kind of strategy to keep quiet about Climate Change. Too confusing for centrist voters? We need to make sure young voters know the Democrats will do something, so some specific proposals should be made.

She was/is qualified by experience and training, etc. but lacks the extra pizazz to win on-the-fence voters.
At this time, I'd recommend Newsom or Mark Kelly.
Female for vice president works fine with US voters - I always liked Klobuchar = smart and affable.
Stay away from the "angry" women - they will drive men away.
Like it or not - the candidate's personality is as important as the issues.

Neither was Hillary for that matter. Maybe the problem lies with many men's perceptions, or as I see them, insecurities.

and flawed humanity will not change in time for the next election.
Dems, who are mostly more idealistic than Repubs, have to see the electorate as they are, not as we wish they would be.
Let's find a strong, well-spoken Dem to articulate fair-minded goals and we'll be okay.
The public will be so sick of underqualified and coarse leadership that common-sense, straightforward leadership will be breathtaking - in a positive way.

I agree that this country is not ready for a female President. I'm pragmatic and want to win. But I still feel uncomfortable using their terminology such as "won't vote for an angry woman" when it's not justified. Let's just pick a male who is more difficult to attack without giving their BS lip service.

I'm more from the Carville school of Democrats. - We really need to be practical politically, as that's where the average voters are, and that's who we need more of to win.
I can be as idealistic as I want, and I am personally very much so, but when it comes to winning elections I can see the need to give the fair-minded independents some space in our tent.

What IS the presidential personality?

You say "smart and affable" - is/was DJT ever "smart and affable," especially compared to his opponents?

Women candidates have had to go out of their way NOT to appear too "angry," but then they're called "weak" (or "tired" or "sick" ) as well as insufficiently "liberal" to the base, no matter their policies, compared with male primary opponents.

The ONLY reason we didn't have President Harris and President HR Clinton is the double-standards of SEXISM.

Kamala Harris went far beyond "smart and affable". She probably came as close to being an FDR-like "Happy Warrior" as any Democratic candidate since FDR. She worked incredibly hard, campaigned everywhere she was needed, on every platform available (Ok, except Joe Rogan). She demolished Trump in debate.

Unfortunately, after the collapse of Biden's campaign there wasn't enough time for Kamala to gracefully distance herself and to run as a change candidate. The ball was fumbled before she took over, and she was forced to defend the status quo and Biden's Gaza policy, which put her at odds with left activists, removing the "movement factor" Democrats often need to win.

I hope she runs again.

Agree re "She worked incredibly hard...."etc.
Not agree- last line above...

and I've never seen an election in which people didn't vote their wallets.

There was a time when the Dems were aligned with workers, and a majority of them believed Dems would look out for their economic interests.

But by the time Trump came along, workers felt betrayed – and imho, rightly so. The repeal of Glass-Steagall, the failure to regulate credit derivatives, the evisceration of labor protections, and many other changes during and since Reagan's & Clinton's presidencies had allowed the 1% to start scraping off every bit of the increase in worker productivity since the 80's. Wages stagnated while the wealth of the 1% skyrocketed. Obama's appointment of the same executives who caused the 2008 global financial crisis to take charge of the bailouts, Treasury, etc., was the cherry on the sh*t sundae.

We'd gone from a world in which a single income could afford a home, college for two kids, and retirement for two adults to one in which two incomes couldn't afford any of that.

I don't care what you "message"; words can hide those realities for only so long. By the time of the Occupy Movement, many workers identifying with either party were disgusted with both parties, and traditional Republican and Democrat voters both showed support for the Occupy camps, despite traditional media's efforts to denigrate or ignore the movement.

In the run-up to the 2016 election, Trump actually co-opted a lot of Bernie's schtick, promising to help workers; and voters took note. Unfortunately, the media gave Trump about a hundred times more coverage than they gave Bernie, apparently in the benighted hope that voters would realize how awful Trump was. Perhaps they saw, but they also heard Trump promise to help them.

The time when the Dems can continue to coast on their history of support for workers is OVER. Continuing to fiddle with the "message" without actually fighting for the economic welfare of workers will only reinforce voters' perceptions of Dem hypocrisy.

All of these excuses when she did incredibly poor in 2020 leading up to it. Harris lost black votes in 2024. She shouldn’t even be a thought.

I think it has to be Buttigieg or Newsome, unless and I hope a new leader appears on our side. Maybe someone from business like Cuban.

I do not like this,and it is not my choice,but that is why we have Rape Van Winkle now.

Raise the minimum wage
Strengthen Social Security
Secure women's rights
Tax the rich and breakup these mega corporations
Legalize weed
Cut military spending
Guarantee health care
Get rid of the corporate democrats
You know the stuff that Democrats are supposed to do

To elect brave progressive LEADERS. I will not help any milquetoast candidates .

Social democratic policies !

If some of the establishment Ds continue their weak sauce strategy , they will loose.

I want a better country for ALL.

We were fighting theoretical fascism. We had been doing that since 2016.

We lost because we did not have a primary. When it became muddled whether there was a democratic voice in our process, we were no longer viable.

Now we remain fighting very real fascism.