“Despite their complicated relationship, the presidents [Biden and Obama] remained in touch, so it was not unusual when Obama swung by the White House in June for a private lunch in the residence. For a while, it genuinely felt like two old friends catching up….But Obama was also there to deliver a message: Trump was going to be incredibly difficult to defeat for a second time.” (p. 66)
Josh Dawsey (Wall Street Journal), Tyler Pager (New York Times), and Isaac Arnsdorf (Washington Post) trace the steps in 2024 that led to Trump winning and the Democrats getting crushed. Dawsey, Pager, and Arnsdorf–along with Trump–are convinced the attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania assured Trump’s victory.
Dawsey, Pager, and Arnsdorf also show how Biden’s mental problems–which showed up so dramatically In his Debate debacle with Trump–sank Biden’s campaign. Could the Democrats have won the 2024 Election if they had more time to run a primary for a candidate rather than running Kamala Harris? Perhaps. But the Democrats made too many mis-steps in 2024 that led to the Trump victory.
The Republicans won the House, the Senate, and the Presidency in 2024. We now live with the Democrats struggling to find a message that will bring voters back to them. At the moment, only 19 percent of respondents to a new Quinnipiac University poll approve of the way the Democratic Party is handling their job in Congress. You can’t win with those kind of numbers!
Dawsey, Pager, and Arnsdorf’s autopsy of the 2024 Election year is full of surprises. Who could have predicted that every time Trump came out of the Courthouse to speak to the media his poll numbers would go up. Even after Trump was convicted, his base grew even larger!
Biden and the Democrats didn’t realize the economic problems they weren’t addressing. The Federal Reserve cut interest rates in 2024, but it was too little too late to help the Democrats. Trump and the Republicans promised lower inflation and lower prices. That was a winning message.
I admit that reading 2024 was like reading about the last day of the Titanic. But there are lessons to be learned from that campaign. Let’s hope the Democrats rediscover their mojo in 2026! Are you optimistic…or pessimistic about the 2026 Mid-Term Elections? GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction — ix
Part One: Comebacks
Point of no return — 1
Not dead — 20
Just business — 35
Inevitable — 43
Sleepwalking — 58
Capitulation — 75
Part Two: Rematch
A poor memory — 89
A takeover — 107
Criminal — 120
The block — 135
“We’re F—-ed” — 148
The drumbeat — 166
July 13, 2024 — 186
Unity — 205
Lord Almighty — 221
Part Three: Shakeup
Unburdened — 233
Cruel summer — 243
Honeymoon — 255
“Kick his A—-” — 268
Paranoia — 281
A man’s world — 291
Warnings — 308
Garbage in, garbage out — 317
The ballroom and the boiler room — 328
Epilogue — 336
Acknowledgments — 357
Notes — 365
Index — 385
Extremely pessimistic—not necessarily because of what the Dems will or won’t do but because I can see red states suppressing votes and refusing to certify elections won by Dems. It will be hard to get back on track when you can’t get elected in the first place. I hate this timeline!
Deb, the Democrats need a strategy to deal with Trump and his minions. A 19% rating will not bring voters to the polls. In another Timeline, Jeffrey Epstein is laughing…
What Deb said. I also have become a conspiracy believer in the idea that the Trump ear shooting was all rigged. So I guess we all just need to find a conspiracy we can believe in. I am sure they are tampering with voting machines as we speak.
Patti, Diane is convinced Trump and his minions are cooking the economic numbers. Things are a lot worse than reported.
What Deb said, also Patti. I didn’t believe in the Trump “assassination” attempt from Day One (you can ask Jackie). We’re supposed to believe that a guy acknowledged as “the worst shooter in school” could openly climb to that spot, unseen, then somehow hit Trump IN THE EARLOBE and do no damage? Right. There WAS NO SHOT! Just sound effects, Trump slapped his ear with the blood pack, NO REAL INVESTIGATION, and the rest is history. We saw when someone ran on stage at one of his events, Trump cowered and ran like a little girl, but we’re supposed to believe that after being shot in an assassination attempt, his first reaction is to make a defiant fist? Right.
Jackie is a determined optimist. But I have no belief that the Midterms will be better, though certainly there is a chance the Democrats could retake the House.
The chance of my reading this book: zero.
Jeff, I’m not optimistic about the Democrats winning anything in 2026. Texas is busy gerrymandering districts now. The polls show voters think the Dems are NOT doing their jobs. A 19% approval rating isn’t going to win anything! Diane is also suspicious of the Butler incident.
Neoliberalism has messed over the DP (and the country), even as it made the party and its adherents wealthier. Biden should’v. been convinced to Not Run in ’24, and a full-bodied primary season should’ve been run. And Drumpf’s ‘shooting” does seem unlikely and convenient in every way,
The “handling” of the Epstein evidence by the Drumpf Admin has been so clumsy and corrupt that they shouldn’t escape unscathed, but we’ll see how the DP manages to not get things done correctly.
Todd, Trump and his allies have peddled so many conspiracy theories it was inevitable that one would blow up in their faces…it just happened to be Epstein. MAGA types defend Trump despite all the photos of Trump with Epstein…and all those young girls!
Well, MAGAts, like Drumpf, are fools. Or (a few) slightly more canny versions of Drumpf, but not much. Even if one is in general agreement with Drumpf’s goals, such as they are, one could find a less stupid and less malicious (and less overwhelmingly greedy and cowardly) achiever of those goals, albeit hard to think of one who would have had as much “goodwill” banked with other fools eager to cut their own throats and those of future generations.
Todd, fools of a feather flock together!
19%?! Much higher than I thought!
Bob, the Democrats have little power and no political strategy to counter Trump and the Republicans. Right now, they’re sitting ducks.
The Epstein flap will pass with no appreciable damage to the Teflon Don. No one cares. The MAGA fools will back him no matter what. If the videos of masked ICE agents manhandling mothers and fathers in front of their kids don’t sicken the average voter, what will? I’m confident that any evidence of DT availing himself of Epstein’s sex services has been deleted or burned. Ah Texas! Our Austin congressional district was gerrymandered years ago to add us to the right-wing western counties and drown us in GOP votes. And so we’re “represented” by the detestable Chip Roy. The new effort to dilute the Democratic vote in Houston and San Antonio is simply the tarantula icing on the cake.
Fred, something tells me only an extreme event–an economic collapse, a terrorist attack, etc.–can change the political momentum.
I also have no confidence the Epstein affair will do him in. In fact, I think his party is pushing that knowing it is a nothing burger.
Though Drumpf’s typical tantrums (as always when everything important to him isn’t going exactly his way) are at least somewhat grimly amusing to watch, and might well help bring him down more than a peg with some of his base.
Todd, I’m not seeing any erosion in Trump’s base. But a lot of Independents are abandoning Trump as prices go up.
On the other hand, rather than hold hearings on any of the sleazy antics of this crew, the Republicans apparently are going to push the issue they claim – and believe me, they know this is 100% bullshit- their constituents care about: Joe Biden’s use of the autopen.
Believe me, if it comes down to what they care about (it doesn’t), Jeffrey Epstein wins over the autopen 1000 to 1.
Jeff, Trump and his crew are deflecting the Epstein explosion with Biden’s autopen…and anything else they can think of!
It is a foolish conceit to think that only Republicans availed themselves of Epstein’s largesse! I’d bet that the number one name on the list is Bill Clinton!
Bob, when Pam Bondi finally releases Epstein’s Client List, we’ll find out if Trump and Clinton are on it!
Teflon Don learned well from his mentors Roy Cohn and Mark Burnett. Lie, lie, and lie again. Distract. Litigate and hand the court costs off to somebody else. Play to the voters’ basest instincts. A society addicted to credit-card debt, social media paranoia, and junk TV will swallow any arsenic you give it, as long as you tell them it’s champagne.
Fred, Teflon Don seems to be following the Joseph Goebbels playbook. You can fool some of the people all of the time…