Harris has a charisma and positive vibe that Hillary struggled with. I think she is more likable, especially with young

[Quixote1818]

people. Would others agree with this? However, in what ways might she struggle in ways Hillary didn't?

I'm just thinking of those 100,000 voters in states like PA, MI and WI we need to win that Hillary didn't and Biden did. That being said, I think Harris will run very well in states like AZ, NV and GA giving us more ways to get to 270.

[mucifer]

1. It really sucks that things are so superficial . Hoping the momentum keeps rolling BUT don't forget

trump did get shot. So really we should all vote for him.

[Butterflylady]

53. Would a sarcasm thingy be appropriate after your last sentence.

I wouldn't want people to think you're voting for orange idiot..

[mucifer]

55. lol I got the Kamala photo thingy. So

I think I’m good

[CrispyQ]

2. She's really grown into her role & exudes confidence she didn't have four years ago.

As for those 100,000 voters in swing states, I'm convinced if James Piece-of-Shit Comey hadn't put his thumb on the scale a few days before the election we would have had a second President Clinton. I know there were a lot of factors but I'll always believe his was the heaviest influence & I almost barfed when I read his "he eats your soul" commentary.

[PortTack]

27. I was just talking with someone about that this am. She has really grown. She exudes confidence!

As the old saying goes “when the student is ready, the teacher appears.”

[still-prayin4rain]

3. Yeah, I loved HC but you're right, she was someone that a lot of people (idiots) didn't like for some (no) reason. nt

[no_hypocrisy]

5. My sister went "I'm voting for Trump. I don't trust Hillary" from

"I'm voting for Hillary. I don't trust Trump."

My guess is that my sister felt inferior to Hillary and had to do something.

[still-prayin4rain]

16. 2016 was absolutely nuts. *shudder* nt

[Autumn]

50. I think it was the eight years Republicans spent investigating Whitewater and

savaged everything she did. They created the farce that she was unlikable and it never went away. Every piece of trash had something nasty to say about her and the media breathlessly reported it as fact.

[still-prayin4rain]

58. It's so true, and it makes me so freaking mad. Few things can make my blood boil more than thinking

about how that incredible, brilliant, hard-working lady was treated. Busted her ass for this country. SMH

[Qutzupalotl]

4. Hillary is an introvert (like me).

She was great on policy but not as great at explaining it and selling it for the cameras.

Kamala seems to be more comfortable in the spotlight, and I am sure she will use it to her advantage and ours.

[PortTack]

28. Agree....it's the prosecutor in her!

As far as HRC, the ppl of AR loved her. As a public servant my entire career, dealing with ppl and their complaints can make one weary. I really believe that’s what happened to HRC….plus the constant hate for 25+ yrs from the right.

[ecstatic]

62. And a Scorpio which is a tough combination at times

People automatically think you're shady or stuck up.

[WarGamer]

6. Even though she's only 9 years younger than Hillary was in 2016...

I definitely get the "youth vibe" she exudes...

[LeftInTX]

37. Yeah..it's a "woman thing"

Hillary has been through childbirth, she's shorter, heavier and has some thinning hair.
The shorter and heavier meant that Hilary wore flatter shoes, (she may have had bad feet for all I know). She wore pant suits instead of skirts and heels. Kamala was wearing high heels yesterday and looked great. Additionally, Kamala being darker makes her look younger. Kamala also has nice hair.

Being able to wear heels and sport clothes the way Kamala can, is a real asset. It also makes her look younger. It also reminds people that she's healthy. I'm sure there are videos of Kamala working out while sporting cute workout clothes. I doubt if similar videos of Hillary exist. (Not that Hillary doesn't exercise. It's just that she probably didn't look flattering in cute workout clothes.)

Full disclosure: I have never been able to wear heels and I'm almost 68. I do wear alot of skirts, but I'm thin. However, my skirts need to be short, otherwise they look frumpy.

[WarGamer]

41. I think you nailed it.

[LeftInTX]

42. Looking at at Trump shooting thread in another forum: Kamala is likely wearing a bullet proof vest already

Add that to another fashion hurdle!

[onandup]

7. She's a stronger candidate than Hillary

She isn't a lot younger, but exudes youth.

[Ocelot II]

8. Unfortunately Hillary had been vilified by the RW for a long time

before she ran for president, and she was stuck with all the baggage that accumulated from years of having that crap thrown at her - even from when she was First Lady. She didn't have to deal with racism, but misogyny is as much of a problem for women in politics as racism, and Hillary got hit with all imaginable aspects of that. The other problem her campaign had, at least from my observation at the time, was that they didn't take Trump seriously enough. Most of us didn't; he was seen as an obnoxious buffoon who couldn't win and maybe the campaign got overconfident. She was given strong odds to win, even despite and after Comey's announcement about re-opening the email investigation. In my pretty reliably Blue state her campaign had almost no visible presence at all. Not taking Trump seriously isn't an option any more, and I'm sure Harris and her people know that.

[ms liberty]

19. All good points. Everyone discounted that the right had vilified and demonized her for almost 20 years

They started making the case against Hillary for President on the day Bill announced his run. There are people who raised their children to know that Hillary was going to run fo President one day and they needed to be ready to vote against her and save Amurika. That was the main reason I didn't want her as our nominee, in either 08 or 16. And while she's very good at the job part, and is a really admirable, smart woman she's not a natural at campaigning. She never seemed really comfortable.

[StevieM]

21. Hillary took Trump seriously. She knew he could win and said so at the time.

In the end, she lost to James Comey. But she ran hard against Trump.

[Ocelot II]

22. I didn't see evidence of hard campaigning in my state; I saw almost none at all.

I couldn't even get a lawn sign because the poorly-staffed campaign offices didn't know how to get one. Maybe Hillary took Trump seriously but I'm not sure some of her campaign staff did.

[StevieM]

26. I don't know what was happening with lawn signs in every single campaign office. Here is what I do know:

She raised a lot of money for advertising and ran a lot of campaign commercials.

She had a huge ground game/GOTV operation, especially in the top battleground states like Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

She made an appearance in Minnesota, which I see is your home state, toward the end of the election.

Perhaps lawn signs should have been a greater priority, and perhaps Minnesota especially had a problem on that front. I do seem to remember that Trumpers were tearing down Clinton lawn signs and a lot of her supporters felt threatened.

[Self Esteem]

9. Harris doesn't have 30 years of right-wing attacks to deal with.

So, that helps.

I do think Harris has more of an *it* factor than Hillary did. Very similar to Obama - though maybe not as universal.

[sop]

10. And Trump hasn't aged well over the last eight years, in body, mind and spirit.

He's meaner, nastier, uglier, a convicted criminal, a documented liar, a known traitor and much more. Most sane voters have his number by now, he's not going to fool anyone like he did when he ran against Hillary.

[republianmushroom]

11. Agree

More personable and in touch, with the laugh and smile.

[calguy]

12. Hillary blazed the trail

so Kamala could walk the final steps to the top.

[PortTack]

29. That's right...and among her many accomplishments helping a women ascend to the WH will be one of them.

[Johnny2X2X]

13. So she's someone different

There's a lot of voters who were begging for, "someone, anyone, but Trump or Biden!"

There's a common group of voters who don't really pay attention who are just disgusted with the whole business and were sick of Biden v Trump and hearing about it all the time. "Why can't we get 2 new candidates?" I really think that group won't care about a lot other than this is someone different they can vote for.

And then there is a large group of younger voters also disgusted with everything that were lamenting having two "relics" to choose from. Kamala is definitely going to get that group off their butts and involved. They havbe been saying for years they want a younger choice, they jsut got what they asked for. And you can see this is real as Kamala is basically viral on all social media platforms right now, she's trending everywhere.

[JohnSJ]

14. No. The media treated Hillary terribly with sexist, misogynistic comments

right out of the gate. “She was shrill, angry all the time”, and worse

I suspect much of the same from them

[ffr]

49. This! Every democrat in the spotlight becomes a target for Fox News slander.

Kamala is in her media honeymoon period. Don't be fooled.

You can bet your bottom dollar those rat fuckers on the right are making up fake ad campaigns, just like the ones they've used in the past on Nancy, Biden, Bill and Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Barack Obama, etc.

If they can convince their idiot base that Barack Obama wasn't born a U.S. citizen and that Hillary Clinton, who enjoyed popularity ratings in the 60s while as SoS and a U.S. senator, was divisive, you can bet they'll make some shit up about Kamala Harris in the coming weeks and repeat the lie over and over until people are 'uncomfortable' with her too.

And if, as should happen, she takes a double digit lead in polls over TSF, the media will go after her to level the playing field. That's how our corporate media works!

[kirby]

15. I hear people don't like her...

When I ask why the only thing they can come up with is they don't like her voice. Talk about superficial and uninformed.

[thesquanderer]

46. I got the same response from someone when asked why they didn't like Bernie Sanders.

They couldn't stand the way he spoke.

[Ocelot II]

18. What the actual fuck are you talking about?

[Ocelot II]

25. Did you mean to respond to a different post? The one I responded to

was removed; it slammed Kamala and claimed Hillary was going to be the nominee.

[Celerity]

32. A PUMA coming out of cryo-storage?

[TwilightZone]

40. Nope.

Based on the recent influx and other comments, just another right-winger with a short shelf life. We have one in particular who goes through a lot of burner e-mail accounts.

[Kaleva]

34. Sorry about that! I got mixed up. I'll delete mine.

[GP6971]

39. 1....2....3 and Poof!!!

[edisdead]

20. Hillary ad plenty of charm and Charisma

but media telling is she didn’t for 30+ years convince people otherwise.

[Alice B.]

30. I remember seeing some program or other...

... a documentary series or some such thing with daughter Chelsea, and wondering why we didn't get to see those sides of her sooner.

Or more of those sides of her.

Though, yes, the media does create some deep dark holes or sky high hills that are impossible to climb out of or up.

[StevieM]

24. She seemed to have plenty of charisma and positive vibe from 2010-2013 when she was incredibly popular.

Her poll numbers were sky high for years. When she lost in 2016, the media took the opportunity to erase that era from the history books.

[betsuni]

63. She polled so well in 2014 that John McCain said, "If the election were held tomorrow, Hillary Clinton would

most likely be president."

Media never took responsibility for their part in replacing the real Hillary with a demonized caricature. After the election it was non-stop Blame Hillary "flawed candidate" "bad campaign" as if the 84% negative coverage compared with Trump's 43% and Sanders's 17% was benign (implying that either Trump won because he was a great candidate with a fabulous campaign and wonderful policies or that Hillary was such a monster she couldn't even beat Trump, and all the nice white people voted for him because of "economic insecurity" the mean liberals made happen because of Bill and Hillary Clinton's plot to destroy America).

[senseandsensibility]

33. I'm not suggesting that you are doing this

but I really hate the way that mainstream culture is so demanding of how women (and only women) present themselves. Hillary was fine. She was much more likeable than cheato. Let's not allow ourselves to pit these two talented women against each other, which is a trap that R's would like to set for us.

[usonian]

35. Please delete. We are electing a President, not a date.

Not being snide. "Personality Politics" BURIES ISSUES.

"Identity Politics" is the curse of our time.

When it works for the better, I am overjoyed.
But we've all seen the downside of "charisma"
Good charisma can be erased by smears and lies.
Books have been written about this.

LET'S GO KAMALA
Issues are so important.

Read, share.
https://democraticunderground.com/100219213115

[ibegurpard]

38. Hillary had years of right-wing attacks stuck to her

That's one of the reasons I thought her candidacy was a big mistake. Opinions about her were pretty much baked-in.
That and the political climate at the time was one of anger about government not looking out for everyday people. She had years of history and the association with Bill Clinton's triangulation policy and couldn't shake it. Real or not that was the perception and still is. I voted for her wholeheartedly even though I strongly advocated for Bernie.
Kamala Harris has a lot more room to define herself and the fascists have little time to set a narrative about her in stone.

[beaglelover]

43. Absoluely agree with you! I love Hillary but Kamala has 'it' and she will energize young voters and

Independent voters.

[quakerboy]

44. More importantly

The RW has not had 30+ years of relentless smearing of her in place before she even put up her first ad or event.

We still have misogyny, racism, russian influence, and general hate for liberals to contend with.

[ananda]

45. For this old person too!

Yes we Kam!!!!!

[electric_blue68]

47. I remember people saying that Hillary back then was much warmer one on one, or with a small group of people.

[KPN]

48. I think Hillary is so brilliantly intelligent and articulate that she turned off

all the simpletons who just want to made to feel good by an entertaining personality. They mistook her abilities coupled with being a relative introvert at her core as arrogance. They were too damned stupid to recognize their distaste for her was more about their own insecurities than anything else.

[TheDemsshouldhireme]

51. Yeah it was a shame about Hillary

so qualified for the job, but something about her turned the conservatives into rabid foaming at the mouth dogs, I know just mentioning her name to my RW father would make the veins pop out in his forehead.

[mcar]

52. Stop with the "Hillary was unlikeable" trope

It is a RW and 2016 far left talking point that was never true.

[meadowlander]

54. I just hope we learned our lessons with how Hillary was "stage-managed".

I got the impression that she was getting so much feedback on how she talked, sat, dressed, waved, etc. that she could sometimes come across as stiff, manufactured and phoney when I'm sure that's not what she was like in real life.

Kamala's team need to build up her confidence instead of tearing it down with constant negative feedback. Let her be herself. She's great.

[Crunchy Frog]

56. The RW had been attacking and building narratives about Hillary for decades.

Harris has only been in their sites for the past four years, and they've been ignoring her for most of that time, focusing on Biden.

I also think she comes off as more fresh, vibrant, and charismatic, without the kind of baggage that Hillary had inevitably built up over her years in the spotlight.

[regnaD kciN]

57. I always thought that this issue was...

…that, unlike Bill, Hillary was an introvert deep down. And that doesn’t make for good campaigning. She always seemed somewhat guarded, and thus it was easy for her opponents to create a narrative where that inherent reserve could be interpreted as “dishonesty,” or “having something to hide.” It sucks, but to succeed in electoral politics, you need to be an extrovert by nature, and it seems to me that Harris has that personality.

[Dem4life1234]

59. Beauty, charisma, spunk, and brains

She has it all! Love her!

[BeyondGeography]

60. HRC could do stuff like this on a debate stage

One of the best smackdowns we’ll ever see:

?si=Qk6bxehP7sr4fBAe

She was the best candidate post-Bill on policy (domestic and foreign) and was amazing on her feet. If you could meld Harris and Clinton you’d have a fantasy candidate.

The good news for this race is you can bone up for a debate but you can’t manufacture personal appeal.

[ecstatic]

61. I think back then there was concern over how much anger or harshness to show, etc

I don't know if those concerns are still weighing women down, but I say it's OK to be angry. It's OK to be tough and harsh. I love it. We want to see trump verbally ripped to shreds.

[SunImp]

64. She also seems very humble & doesn't appear to hold any grudges

[boston bean]

65. I am biting my tongue on this likable bullcrap!

Aaarrrrrggggghhhhhhh