To remind everyone, I was NEVER a fan of Donald Trump. In late September, I wrote, “Obviously, I’m going to vote for Harris. I’m a left-tilting centrist, who would rather vote for a bowl of warm pudding over Donald Trump.“ 

But I was also never enthralled with Harris’s campaign. If found her to be a big “meh,” whose chief advantage was that she wasn’t Trump. I also saw weakness in the Democratic message during conversations with my neighbors and family, aka people who vote. 

Because I’m not in DC, I had a more realistic picture of this election than other pundits. A few years back, I hit a glass ceiling with punditry, because I couldn’t relocate to DC and was too old to be taken seriously by my 20-year old editors. Turns out being in the DC bubble was a liability. Who knew? 

Too many of the pros had their heads up their asses in this election and were genuinely surprised, despite the ominous polls. While I was momentarily swayed by the Harris good vibes, for the most part, I wrote about my worries for a year. Y’all need to listen to the old broads from Jersey. 

On July 15 — after the bad debate and the assignation attempt, but before the Harris replacement — I wrote that that Trump’s re-election seemed inevitable. The assignation turned him into a Messianic figure among his supporters, I said. But it wasn’t only about the assassination. I was also seeing surprising support among Suburban moms.

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