Ryan Grim

an economic populist running against Biden would have been more successful.

Yeah, I mean, I don't know.

Here's the thing.

I think if Biden stays in and gets primaried, voters were behind Biden at that particular time.

And so that was sort of one of the things that made it challenging.

I think if Biden decides not to run... Although once he had to debate.

Well, yes, I mean, that changed the trajectory of the race.

But I think once he... If he had decided not to run...

you know, the administration was very unpopular.

And the advantage of a primary would have been that someone not attached to the administration could have sort of honestly critiqued the administration without being tied to it in the same way.

I think that was one of the main things that dragged Harris down was, you know, she...

was part of an administration that was horribly unpopular, and there was really no easy way to distance herself from that.

And so I think probably that is the only, you know, the best shot we would have had.

And so one thing I thought was missing, and maybe I didn't quite spot it in the piece, was a look at why the... So let's back it up.

So why was the brand as bad as it was, is the overlying question.

And...

from our perspective, as we were covering this campaign, we were watching as the most kind of popular elements of the Biden administration, which were kind of his pro-labor record and the kind of antitrust record and, you know, Lena Kahn going after powerful companies and saying, this is the reason why you're paying more and we need to go after these companies.

And then meanwhile, you'd have people like Reid Hoffman and Mark Cuban going on air and saying, no, actually, she's not even going to

hire Lena Kahn.

These people are crazy.