I see that James Talarico is doing something that Kamala did not
During his interview with Lawrence last night, he defined his opponent with surgical precision. Incorporated in every answer was the term "the most corrupt politician in America" about Paxton. He also referred almost as often to Paxton enriching himself and doing nothing to lower prices. He was a master at pivoting to those two things no matter what the subject and still answering the question.
Ironically, this may be one good thing that comes out of the 2024 "autopsy" which found that Dems did not define their opponent. The simple fact is that you can have all the great ideas in the world (and Dems do) but first you need to "dirty up" your opponent. That way, voters will listen more critically to their lies and name-calling
Kamala did a great job and I am not trying to second guess her. She was in an impossible position in many ways and she did a great job with what she was handed. But if we can learn something from that race, let's do do. Defining your opponent AND presenting a positive vision for the future is unbelievably difficult. But from what I saw from Talarico last night, he understands that and is going to do it!
We're going to need more shovels for that amount of bullshit, but here goes...
First of all, changing the subject to your ooponent in the way Talarico did ("pivoting" as you called it) during answers is what's known as deflecting. It signals, to me anyway, that you really don't want people to pay attention to your own positions, or that you lack substantiv positions at all.
As an aisde, DU is unique for lauding such deflections as if it were some sort of rhetorical brilliance. I know of no other group of people who praise members of their own side for being deceptive. It's bizarre, and sickening.
Secondly, there could be any number of reasons why Democrats lost in 2024; failure to label or smear Trump was not one of them. They've called him every degrading name in the book, and had the media to amplify their message,
and they still lost. That reflects how bad of a candidate Harris was, and how bad your ideas are.
