Election Day is just around the corner. If the polls are to be trusted, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are neck-and-neck, and it all comes down to a handful of swing states, as it often does. At first glance, that should mean the two stand about an equal chance of winning. Still, there are those within the Democratic Party who are already pointing fingers and assigning blame should she lose next week. As one strategist explained to The Hill, there’s no traditional process for this election – there wasn’t even a primary, in effect, since Joe Biden bowed out of the race and Kamala was selected by the party rather than elected by the voters to take his place. So if it all falls apart for her, where should the blame lie: Biden, the Democratic elite, or her campaign decisions?

Blame Biden – A Lame Duck Story

When it comes to assigning blame should Harris lose, who better to be the patsy than the lame-duck president, Joe Biden? His political career and relevance are effectively over once the next president takes office. And to be sure, the man hasn’t exactly helped his VP’s case. Biden’s cognitive decline has been on display for a long time – since well before he finally ended his campaign in July, effectively passing the torch to Kamala by handing over his endorsement and campaign funds. Since his disastrous debate against former President Donald Trump, Biden has touted Harris’ role in the administration, hindering her attempts to distance herself from the Biden-Harris administration of the previous four years and convince America that Harris-Walz would be different. Then he capped it all off by calling Trump voters garbage … on the very day of Kamala’s closing campaign arguments, an event that should have been her moment in the sun but was, instead, outshone by news of the ailing president’s latest gaffe.

Though, as easy as it may be to blame Biden – and safe, as it costs Democrats nothing to throw him under the proverbial bus now that he isn’t useful anymore – one must again look at Kamala, the big wigs of the Democratic Party, and the Harris-friendly left-wing media. They were the ones who denied the president’s decline when it was clear to anyone with eyes and ears, only to turn on him after the Trump-Biden debate. She, particularly, defended him and denied her candidacy until the day he bowed out of the race. Does anyone believe that Biden really was “sharp as a tack” leading up to the “abrupt” decision that many saw coming for a month or more?

It calls to mind the 2020 primary when Harris called Biden racist only to pretend she had never said it, then sang his praises and proudly served with him for four years after the fact. But even beyond the integrity issue, Kamala, as a presidential candidate, has other problems. She still refuses to fully engage with the very friendly press now that she’s the Democratic Party’s nominee for president. When she does take questions, she either delivers long and nigh incomprehensible word-salad answers or erupts in bouts of unfortunately timed nervous laughter. She chose Tim Walz as her running mate – a move that confused many, even among her most loyal supporters who still aren’t sure what political benefit he brings to the table. And then there’s her complete failure to make herself stand out from the current administration – which many would say has been one long string of disasters and debacles – of which she should play a major role as vice president.

Is the Harris Campaign Telling the Wrong Story?

When it comes to mistakes made by the Harris campaign, the biggest may well have been transitioning from abortion – for all the good it seemed to be doing in the polls this go around – to labeling Trump a “fascist” and a “threat” to democracy.” And even left-wing news outlet Vox can see it.

“Common sense dictates that, when running against a Hitler-admiring authoritarian, it’s wise to emphasize that your opponent is a Hitler-admiring authoritarian,” Vox wrote in regards to Kamala’s resurrecting the old Orange Man Bad narrative. “But judging by the available data, swing voters are largely unmoved by such assertions, however objectively true and important they may be.”

Vox, for those unaware, isn’t exactly free from bias. But as the old saying goes, even a broken clock is right twice a day – and the problem with this Trump the Terrible approach is clear even to them. “Nine years after Trump launched his first presidential campaign, voters already know what they think about him. And if undecided voters still aren’t convinced that Trump is an authoritarian menace, they probably can’t be persuaded on that point,” Vox correctly explained. “After all, Trump-curious voters remember Democrats issuing apocalyptic warnings in 2016, yet did not personally suffer nor witness any political repression during his time in office.”

But What of Trump?

The Trump campaign has its own significant issues, of course. Like Kamala’s choice of Tim Walz, JD Vance was not who many Republicans wanted to see on the ticket with Donald Trump this year. After Biden bowed out, Trump initially seemed entirely unprepared for the Harris swap, and many would argue that she won their single debate. Then there’s the former president’s mouth. Donald Trump has the kind of larger-than-life personality that most folks either love or hate but that few are ambivalent about, and many on the right fall into the Never Trump camp. Speaking of ill-timed comments close to election day, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s Puerto Rico line at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally – the very joke that inspired Biden’s cursed garbage remark – didn’t help the former president’s case. While it may not prove as disastrous as Biden’s gaffe, it made great fodder for an already anti-Trump establishment media and gave his detractors yet another quote to cite in their “Trump’s the worst” narrative.

But, as Vox astutely pointed out, people already know how they feel about the former president. It’s Kamala who needed to make the right impression on voters.

While the leftists at Vox can clearly see the symptoms of the problem, they seem to miss the underlying cause: Trump was president for four years and did not exhibit fascist behavior or appear to be chomping at the bit to destroy democracy as soon as he was sworn in. But, if true blue media outlets can recognize as much of the problem for the Harris campaign as they do, surely plenty of Democratic voters can, as well.

That said, based on the poling swing toward Donald Trump, the previous tactic of focusing on abortion didn’t seem to be working, either. Unfortunately for Harris, those seem to be the only two songs on her campaign playlist this year.