a wildly different campaign than Biden/Harris/Walz? I really don't believe so.  I believe that almost ANY other Democrat would have ran a similar campaign - that the main focus would have been about the evils of Trump and MAGA, thus, ending in the same results. I really don't think any other Democrat would have veered much further off of the Biden/Harris/Walz path and would have faced the same fate. Sadly, I think one reason why the Democrat failed on inflation is because they believed all the good Biden did and how the economy was going would be enough to reassure the American people that things were changing.  Let me make this point about the Democratic failure of dealing with the economy - in this campaign, how many times did anyone hear Democrats talk positively about mutual funds, 401ks, deferred compensation and like accounts?  I did not hear ONE time talk about such things and here is the kicker, from Harper's Index, in 1980 only 1 in 20 people had such funds, today it is 1 out of 2! So, fifty percent of Americans are invested in some sort of like accounts and not once did I hear a Democrat refer back to how these funds prospered after Trump - I know I was watching mine.  But I didn't hear one reference to such funds. Maybe a border-state Democrat would have had a different track on immigration, but I deeply believe that the Democratic Party thought Trump being Trump would be enough to ensure a win.