WASHINGTON, DC - Some of the Democratic Party's leading figures are moving to break down what exactly went wrong for the party- in the aftermath of one of its worst election losses in a generation.
One strategist with decades of campaign experience isn't pulling punches when it comes to the party's "big, big mistakes."
James Carville, who has advised Democrats including President Bill Clinton in campaigns, adressed the topic during this week's episode of the Politics War Room podcast, according to Newsweek. That podcast is itself hosted by former senior advisor to President Barack Obama Peter Lodge.
Carville referenced some of the extremist policy positions that became associated with the party in the midst of the 2020 Black Lives Matter race riots.
"But the image stuck in people's minds that the Democrats wanted to defund the police, wanted to empty prisons."
"It created a sense of dishonor."
Carville also addressed Kamala Harris' receipt of the Democratic nomination without any competitive and transparent primary process- a development that followed President Joe Biden's sudden and unplanned departure from the presidential election.
"By Biden staying in so late, we didn't have any process." Carville further pointed to potential Democratic candidates that never had a chance to compete for the nomination.
"We had all of this unused [talent] sitting on the sideline."
There's ample reason to accuse Carville of acting as a Monday-morning quarterback in his post-election punditry. The legacy Democrat was an ardent backer of Harris before the election, even going so far as to make a bold and ultimately erroneous prediction that she would win the November election, according to the New York Post. Instead, Harris became the first Democrat to lose the national popular vote to a Republican who wasn't a sitting president since Walter Mondale's 1988 election loss to then-Vice President George H.W. Bush.
Carville went so far as to state he was "certain" of Harris' victory in an October New York Times op-ed.
Lodge did reference the irony of professional Democrats finding fault with the Harris campaign a week after her devastating loss, rather than critiquing her approach during the election season. The former Obama advisor described the Democrats as entering the "I knew it all along" stage of "post-campaign punditry," speaking to Newsweek.
Carville did acknowledge that the Democrats appeared to be running on the status quo in the midst of an economy blighted with inflation and crippling conditions for middle-class Americans.
One strategist with decades of campaign experience isn't pulling punches when it comes to the party's "big, big mistakes."
James Carville, who has advised Democrats including President Bill Clinton in campaigns, adressed the topic during this week's episode of the Politics War Room podcast, according to Newsweek. That podcast is itself hosted by former senior advisor to President Barack Obama Peter Lodge.
Carville referenced some of the extremist policy positions that became associated with the party in the midst of the 2020 Black Lives Matter race riots.
"But the image stuck in people's minds that the Democrats wanted to defund the police, wanted to empty prisons."
"It created a sense of dishonor."
Carville also addressed Kamala Harris' receipt of the Democratic nomination without any competitive and transparent primary process- a development that followed President Joe Biden's sudden and unplanned departure from the presidential election.
"By Biden staying in so late, we didn't have any process." Carville further pointed to potential Democratic candidates that never had a chance to compete for the nomination.
"We had all of this unused [talent] sitting on the sideline."
There's ample reason to accuse Carville of acting as a Monday-morning quarterback in his post-election punditry. The legacy Democrat was an ardent backer of Harris before the election, even going so far as to make a bold and ultimately erroneous prediction that she would win the November election, according to the New York Post. Instead, Harris became the first Democrat to lose the national popular vote to a Republican who wasn't a sitting president since Walter Mondale's 1988 election loss to then-Vice President George H.W. Bush.
Carville went so far as to state he was "certain" of Harris' victory in an October New York Times op-ed.
Lodge did reference the irony of professional Democrats finding fault with the Harris campaign a week after her devastating loss, rather than critiquing her approach during the election season. The former Obama advisor described the Democrats as entering the "I knew it all along" stage of "post-campaign punditry," speaking to Newsweek.
Carville did acknowledge that the Democrats appeared to be running on the status quo in the midst of an economy blighted with inflation and crippling conditions for middle-class Americans.
"In a 65 percent wrong-track country, we were offering people the same track."
"Change is what wins elections."
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