The quote:
āGiven Joe Bidenās incredible record, given Donald Trumpās terrible record: he should be mopping the floor with Donald Trump. Joe Biden is running against a criminal. It should not be even close. And there is only one reason it is close. And that is the presidentās age.ā
Polls have her doing better than Biden. You could do worse than running a woman when abortion is on the ballot (and by worse I mean, for example, a catholic whoās visibly queasy about actually supporting bodily autonomy). She also gets you back the anti-genocide vote, and sheās responsible for a lot of Bidenās support among black Americans.
Sheās only polling better because thatās what the media wants you to believe. Polls are meaningless and are only valuable to those pushing the polls.
I hadnāt heard that sheās diverged from the administration on this issue. But I would add that the anti-genocide vote is also anti-cop, and Harris is a cop.
She distanced herself when Biden was starting to really commit to the genocide denial, which is probably enough for a lot of people. Biden is pretty extreme, even among democrats who support Israel, and heās been the one driving the wagon. Harris doesnāt have the same baggage or history of fantacism when it comes to Israel. She shows more awareness of the generational sea change regarding attitudes towards Israel.
As for the prosecutor thing, I donāt think thatās something in the same scale of problem as the genocide support. People act like because centerists/āleftistsā wonāt compromise on genocide that means theyāre unwilling to compromise on everything but thatās not true. Such flagrant disregard for basic humanity is a hard limit for many people though. People understand the stakes, Bidenās zealotry is just that extreme and alienating. It wouldnāt have taken much for him to avoid this problem, but combined with the faltering mental capacity heās too politically toxic at this point to recover.
Polls show that people will vote for the lesser evil that is Harris, they wonāt vote for the outright evil that is Bidenās fanatical, blind support of genocide. The party leadership sees it, they understand the math is against them regardless of how much AIPAC pays them, this doddering debate performance and politically deaf follow-up was the tipping point.