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Maybe It Was Never About the Factory Jobs

January 13, 2025 at 1:00 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Jonathan Chait: “On the substance, Biden’s economic agenda has registered some meaningful successes. The hot labor market raised wages; union organizers at a handful of companies, such as Starbucks and Amazon, have made breakthroughs; and the administration’s public investments in chip production and green energy have built up strategic domestic industries. As a political strategy, however, post-neoliberalism has clearly failed. Biden’s popularity dropped to catastrophic levels in his first year and never recovered, leaving his successor, Vice President Kamala Harris, unable to escape his gravitational pull. If rejecting neoliberalism for four years did nothing to pull working-class voters away from Trump, perhaps Trumpism was never a revolt against neoliberalism in the first place.”

“Some Democrats have responded to the disaster of 2024 by insisting that the way forward for the party is to keep doing what Biden did, but louder and more insistently. In fact, Trump’s reelection ought to call into question the whole foundation upon which the strategy was constructed.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign, Economy

Harris Campaign Still Charging Donors

January 11, 2025 at 11:38 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Playbook: “The ‘victory’ part didn’t pan out for the Harris Victory Fund. But the funding part remains alive and well on the bank statements of some Democratic donors.”

“Two months after Kamala Harris’ defeat, the joint fundraising committee her campaign set up with the Democratic National Committee is still charging monthly recurring donors to the committee… And some donors are not happy.”

Said a Democratic operative: “It’s silly, out of touch, and needlessly takes advantage of our most loyal supporters.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign

Republicans Made Big Gains in Mail Voting

January 11, 2025 at 7:28 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Republicans made almost universal gains in mail voting during the 2024 election, eroding a key Democratic advantage in nearly every state that tracks party registration,” the New York Times reports.

“The Republican rise in the use of mail voting was almost always accompanied by a drop in registered Democrats casting a mail ballot, allowing Republicans to make significant inroads in battleground states like Pennsylvania, red states like Florida and blue states like Connecticut.”

“The turnaround was remarkable given Republicans’ yearslong skepticism toward mail voting, fueled by President-elect Donald J. Trump’s false claims about fraud. The method was once widely embraced by Republicans in Southern and rural states but fell out of favor during and after the 2020 election as Mr. Trump and his allies argued that the only safe way to vote was in person on Election Day.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign, Election Administration


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Biden Thinks He Would Have Beaten Trump Again

January 8, 2025 at 7:28 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Biden told USA Today that he would’ve won re-election: “It’s presumptuous to say that, but I think yes.”

But he was unsure if he could have served another full four-year term: “So far, so good. But who knows what I’m going to be when I’m 86 years old? … Who the hell knows?”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign

Mike Pence Praises Kamala Harris

January 7, 2025 at 10:12 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Former Vice President Mike Pence released a statement praising Vice President Kamala Harris and members of Congress for a peaceful transfer of power after certifying Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 election,” USA Today reports.

Said Pence: “The peaceful transfer of power is the hallmark of our democracy.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign

Congress Certifies Trump’s Victory

January 6, 2025 at 1:39 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Congress has certified President-elect Donald Trump’s Electoral College victory in the 2024 election in a meeting that took roughly 30 minutes, Punchbowl News reports.

Not a single lawmaker challenged the result of the election. It stood in extraordinarily stark contrast to Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob attacked the Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 election.

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign

Congress Is Set to Certify Trump’s Victory

January 6, 2025 at 1:00 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“A joint session of Congress is set to convene at 1 p.m. to perform a ritual that was considered ceremonial and uneventful before a mob of Trump supporters attacked the Capitol in 2021,” the New York Times reports.

Leave your reaction in the comments.

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign

Four Years Later

January 6, 2025 at 12:45 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Matthew Yglesias: “Electoral politics in a two-party system is hard. So much is at stake at the ballot box — tax policy, abortion rights, immigration, and a million other things, all of which are incredibly important. I deeply respect and admire the decision made by Liz Cheney and a handful of others to take a fully principled stand on the January 6 question, but I also respect (or at least understand) the decision of those who’ve decided they care more about other things than about Trump’s low character and basic unfitness for office.”

“But what disturbs me is the extent to which the entire conservative movement has retconned not just the events of four years ago, but their own reactions to those events, such that these days, to be disturbed by them is considered some form of lib hysteria.”

“The reality is quite the opposite.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign

Our National Day of Shame

January 6, 2025 at 12:30 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

William Kristol: “George Orwell wrote that in our day ‘restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.’”

“So let me restate the obvious: January 6, 2021 is a day that should live in infamy.”

“But for the next four years January 6th won’t live in infamy. Because in two weeks the man who incited January 6th, the man who now excuses it—no, celebrates it—will be sworn in as our next president.”

“So the obvious if unpleasant fact is that today we as a nation are in a worse condition, facing a more ominous future, than we faced four years ago.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign

Harris Reminds Americans of Preserving Democracy

January 6, 2025 at 12:00 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Vice President Kamala Harris, who will preside over the joint session of Congress today, released a video reminding Americans “of the role they play in preserving our democracy” and describing the peaceful transfer of power as “one of the most fundamental principles of American democracy,” Politico reports.

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign, Democracy

An Awkward January 6 Anniversary

January 6, 2025 at 11:00 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“It’s the fourth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, a solemn reminder of a day that rattled U.S. democracy and set off far-reaching legal and political ramifications,” the Washington Post reports.

“But it’s an especially disheartening occasion this year for those who spent last year campaigning against Donald Trump on the issue of democracy, hoping that his central role leading up to Jan. 6 would disqualify him among voters.”

“Instead, they handed Trump a second term in the November election, and he is returning to the White House largely unapologetic about the events of that day — and even promising to pardon those charged in connection with the attack.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign

January 6th Was Successful

January 6, 2025 at 10:43 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

John Ganz: “We are accustomed to repeating now that Trump’s coalition is fragile or that there are intrinsic weaknesses in his governing style. True so far as it goes, but how fragile is a coalition that reformed and expanded after he attempted to overthrow the U.S. government? And how weak is someone who managed to suffuse the atmosphere with a sense of total credulity about himself and total cynicism about his opponents?”

“This is an attitude now shared even among those who do not consider themselves his supporters. There is now a process of retrospective legitimation, as if the vote somehow wipes the slate clean, and makes lies the truth…”

“Some of that can be blamed on the failure of the media or the opposition party, but some credit has to be given to Trump himself. The great insult comic has landed his jibes: he has embarrassed the opposition, he has humiliated them. They are forced to laugh along now or look like spoilsports.”

David Ferris: How the January 6 insurrectionists won in the end.

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign

Congress Counts the Electoral Votes

January 6, 2025 at 7:46 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Playbook: “Every indication is that it will go smoothly. No riots, no storming of the Capitol, no delays. Of course, a few things are different this time compared to 2021: There’s a formidable fencing system up around the Capitol, the overnight snowstorm has made it difficult to get around the city and no Democratic congressional leaders are doing what many Republican leaders did four years ago by publicly questioning the validity of the election results.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign

77 Elected Officials Were Recalled Last Year

January 3, 2025 at 9:59 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Joshua Spivak: “At least 108 recalls went to the ballot in 2024, with 77 resulting in removal and 31 officials surviving the vote. Sixteen officials resigned in the face of a serious recall effort, and one official in Flint, Mich., died before the recall vote was held.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign

It’s the Same as It Ever Was

January 2, 2025 at 1:27 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

James Carville: “I thought Kamala Harris would win. I was wrong. While I’m sure we Democrats can argue that the loss wasn’t a landslide or take a little solace in our House performance, the most important thing for us now is to face that we were wrong and take action on the prevailing ‘why.'”

“I’ve been going over this in my head for the past two months, all the variables, all the what-ifs, all the questions about Joe Biden’s re-election decisions and what kind of Democrat or message might have worked against Donald Trump. I keep coming back to the same thing. We lost for one very simple reason: It was, it is and it always will be the economy, stupid. We have to begin 2025 with that truth as our political north star and not get distracted by anything else.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign

What Drove Politics in 2024

December 31, 2024 at 10:00 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Playbook: “As we say goodbye to 2024, a whipsaw of a political year, it’s worth stepping back in a newsletter obsessed with what’s driving the day and reflecting about what drove the year.”

“This year will be forever branded on the American political consciousness, one remembered for the first criminal conviction of a former president, not to mention half a billion dollars in court-ordered payments and a defamation case; two assassination attempts; the current president dropping out after a disastrous debate performance and endorsing his own running mate to succeed him on the ticket; and that same former president storming back to win 312 electoral votes.”

“If you’re like us, you haven’t caught your breath since the election, even as a new year promises — or threatens, depending on your point of view — to reveal itself.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign

What the ‘Year of Democracy’ Taught Us

December 30, 2024 at 12:00 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Financial Times: “It was heralded as the year of democracy. With more than one and a half billion ballots cast in elections across 73 countries, 2024 offered a rare opportunity to take the social and political temperature of almost half of the world’s population.”

“The results are now in, and they have delivered a damning verdict on holders of public office.”

“The incumbent in every one of the 12 developed western countries that held national elections in 2024 lost vote share at the polls, the first time this has ever happened in almost 120 years of modern democracy.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign, Democracy, Foreign Affairs

Question of the Year

December 29, 2024 at 1:43 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Judd Legum: “Musk spent nearly $300 million to elect a president with a virulently anti-immigrant agenda and now is telling Trump’s anti-immigrant supporters to ‘Fuck yourself in the face.’”

“Unclear who Musk thought was voting for the guy who blamed immigrants for all of America’s economic problems.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign

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About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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