Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFighting Over a 'Flawless' Campaign
Leaders of the Trump and Harris campaigns met this week to talk tactics. It wasnt pretty.https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/06/us/politics/trump-harris-campaign-meeting.html
https://archive.ph/H2qEv
![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/12/06/multimedia/06-pol-on-politics-newsletter-harvard-topitem-lkjh/06-pol-on-politics-newsletter-harvard-topitem-lkjh-jumbo.jpg)
Jennifer OMalley Dillon, the chair of both the Biden and the Harris campaigns, in September. Credit...Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times
Reader, we wrote you this newsletter in a tense room in Cambridge. The walls were covered in dark-wood paneling. A U-shaped conference table was elegantly draped with maroon tablecloths and decorated with little jars of roses and calla lilies. On one side of the table sat several senior staff members for the Biden-Harris campaign who looked a little bit as if they were undergoing a collective root canal without anesthesia. On the other side sat five leading Trump campaign staff members and allies who looked a little bit as if they were holding the dentists drill.
After every presidential election, the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School invites campaign strategists for both general-election candidates as well as key staff members from losing primary campaigns to unload about what happened. The discussions, which take place on panels moderated by journalists, can get heated, as they did in 2016. Maybe some years the event feels cathartic. This year, though, the big word was flawless.
Sheila Nix, Vice President Kamala Harriss campaign chief of staff, used it on Thursday as each campaign outlined over dinner what had been its main strategy, saying Ms. Harris ran a pretty flawless campaign. And then Chris LaCivita, one of President-elect Donald Trumps campaign managers, lobbed the word back at Team Biden/Harris during one of the panels today. Flawless execution, he sarcastically interjected, after Jennifer OMalley Dillon, the chair of the Biden and then the Harris campaign, labored to answer a question about the fateful debate that ended President Bidens campaign.
LaCivitas interruption got at a central tension in the aftermath of the election, one that has grated on Democrats outside the room and became a target of mockery from the Trump staff members inside it. For a campaign that lost, the Biden-Harris team has been reluctant to admit to specific mistakes and that pattern continued today. They admitted they had lost, but their diagnosis was more about the mood of the country than tactical errors on their part. The ultimate answer may be a combination of both factors. We lost clearly, we didnt achieve what we had hoped to, OMalley Dillon said, as she answered a question about the challenges of Harriss running as a change candidate while also being part of the current administration.
snip
2 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
![](/du4img/smicon-reply-new.gif)
Fighting Over a 'Flawless' Campaign (Original Post)
Celerity
Dec 7
OP
Montauk6
(8,760 posts)1. Seriously? THIS was worth a sitdown??
What really is there to talk about? The Harris folks should have just said, "You guys lied and smeared, congratulations," and walked out, IMHO.
harumph
(2,379 posts)2. That sounds like an exercise in stupidity.
As if there can be any collegiality. Maybe there is though. Maybe, it's nothing personal to those with big fat salaries and
big fat inheritances. Just a game. Ha Ha laughs and snacks afterwards.