USA 2024 presidential election

Negative campaign from the Democrats?

In what universe were the Republicans not running a negative campaign?
Trump was openly calling his opponent 'retarded'.

How about a definition of what counts as a negative campaign, and some assessment of how both sides campaigns stack up against that. For every 'negative' comment from a Democrat, I'm sure either more or far worse can be found from a Republican.

I'm not out of touch, I'm fully aware of the thought process that goes on. It doesn't make them any less wrong.

I could use a Simpsons meme now, but not sure if they are allowed in this thread.

But yea, you are out of touch.

Harris lost the election, Trump won it, and he won it on the fundamentals of the economy and the cost of living.

Trump's proposals will do nothing for those fundamentals, expert analysis was that they would be far worse.

If you disagree please explain how they will be better than Biden-Harris type approach.
And if you disagree, then you seem to be accepting that Trump duped the electorate \ won on perception \ simplicity of his message - not on 'fundamentals'.

Cheap shots backed up by nothing.

Biden-Harris didn't sit back. They send billions of aid.
Unless you think they should have sent in US forces to directly engage?

Meanwhile Trump twice tried to hold up aid to Ukraine purely for cynical domestic political reasons.

A weak US? Trump has given indications of not assisting NATO members if he thinks they didn't "pay their way".
He effectively surrendered to the Taliban in the dreadful deal signed under his Presidency.

Israel wouldn't have to wait for a 'weak' US, under Trump they would have everything they asked for, and more … Trump is the one urging them to get the job done and was critical of the Biden administration for not getting weapons to Israel quick enough.

Your claims don't stand up to any scrutiny.

No US administration has ever been good for Palestinians.

Biden knew it was a disastrous deal, why did he allow it to go ahead. He knew, well not to the extent, how bad it was likely going to end up. He's as culpable as the other idiot for that deal

10 years ago, a basket of food in the US cost 50% less than Ireland. Now the same basket costs 30% more than Ireland.

For the people on a lower wage, certain foods have become unaffordable. Although this trend was happening even before Biden came to power. Biden could have done something about it but didn't. However I can't see Trump improve this situation. His trickle down economics is not going to cut grocery prices at all.

A lot of the analysis we are now seeing is based on exits polls. On TV news, I think CNN, on hte morning after one commentator opined that exit polls are not worth the paper they are written on. His point was that they are based voters coming from the polling station being willing to discuss with a total stranger how they voted and why. Such voters are a self selected group and bear no relationship to the general electorate. It is one of the reason why , at one point, according to the exit polls, the 'protection of democracy' was the number one issue for voters, 'abortion right' and economy were second and third. Clearly , in that poll, more democratic voters were willing to talk with the pollster.

Anecdotally though, there is some evidence that other issues were at play. Many Latino and black males said they would not vote for a woman. I just heard the same point on RTE Clare Byrne this minute, that not only misogyny amongst men, many women in US also do not believe that a woman should be in charge.

And as @Dogsdodogsstuff said, these polls do not capture those who did not go out to vote. A lot is being made about Harris being a weak candidate. But the truth is that a man who has already put American democracy in jeopardy , who has used hate speech to describe a lot of his opponents, who has threatened to weaponise the justice department against his political opponents , was seen as a better candidate by the American electorate. A lot of those were not interested in the economy, good or bad. Or at least not interested enough to actually look at the data which showed the US as one of strongest economies post Corvid, in the world.

Biden can't be as 'culpable' for culpable to have any meaning.

Trump negotiated an awful deal from a position of relative strength.
He weakened the position that Biden inherited.
You can criticise Biden for not doing more to correct the mess, but the weak hand he was dealt was all on Trump.

The primary culpability clearly lies with Trump for signing the deal in the first place, a deal that meant it was very difficult to reverse it on the ground even if later events showed it to be unwise.

Just a note on food quality in the US. Quality has always been more affordable in Ireland, even when I emigrated to the US in the 80s.

Their food was cheap and poor quality then, but now it's expensive and still poor quality according to my US relatives who come to Ireland often.