Harris and Trump are tied, poll finds. Here's why strategists say that's good for Democrats

Especially since Harris isn't exactly the most beloved figure in the dem world, if there even is such a thing at the moment.

I'll readily admit I was in the camp of thinking that Biden dropping now would be suicide. I am very happy to have been proven wrong so far.

Exactly. Democrats are falling in line and that's to be expected. They already voted for her as VP, so they should have no objection to her as President.

But independents and swing voters should still be undecided on her. Some might lean slightly towards her because she is younger and not a senile fascist, but overall, it should not be expected that they will support her at this stage.

Polling in September will be more accurate.

This is the very first round of polling and she's already doing better than Biden could have dreamed.

Because she's polling higher than Biden. That's the reason. In a few days we'll have better data. If equal numbers continues into a trend then that's good because she's already brought people back on side. Obviously if her numbers go above Trump that's just great news all around. But this is breathing life into what was a dead campaign.

The latest polls are now showing Harris slightly ahead (even to 4% lead). But it's way to early to make any strong conclusions.

I'm certainly looking forward to their election predictor coming back up once the nominee is confirmed.

538, by design, lags behind the latest polling, because they're intentionally smoothing out the numbers. Trends - if they're real - will take time to express themselves as a result.

The key takeaway here is that these numbers are still very good for the Dems, because Trump is at his absolute ceiling in popularity. He's coming off of a strong debate performance and nearly being killed. That's as good as it gets for him. The American public isn't going to grow to like him as they get to know him more; he's dominated political discourse non-stop for the last eight years. There's no room left for him to grow.

Kamala, on the other hand, has a lot of room to grow. That doesn't guarantee that she will, but it puts all the initiative in her hands. There's still time for the Dems to play this wrong, but also a lot of space for them to play it right.

I'd like to know what the Lemmings that didn't endorse Biden stepping down are thinking now.

I was one of them, so I'll answer your question as honestly as I can. I was against it only because the argument seemed like the next phase of anti-Biden (stealth pro-Trump) propaganda:

Sleepy Joe -> Hunter's Laptop -> "Genocide Joe" -> Biden's too old -> Biden had one bad debate and should drop out

While some of the criticism was perfectly valid, the fact that it was being constantly drummed and amplified by the "usual suspects" prevented me from hearing the argument in anything but bad faith and left me to assume the intention was to inject chaos into the democratic side of the election. I still feel the "usual suspects" were operating as described, but broken clocks and all that, you know?

Now that it's happened (regardless of whether I feel Biden was forced into it) and everyone is actually coalescing around VP Harris, I'm willing to admit I was wrong.

While I wasn't excited for Biden (nothing against him, he's done a great job and I'm sure would have continued to do so), I am energized by having someone younger and more energetic who will continue the work started in the current administration. It appears I'm not alone in that and am glad to see support for Harris coming in.

As long as we don't nitpick, single-issue, and in-fight ourselves to defeat between now and November and actually line up behind the presumed candidate, I'm optimistic Harris is the right choice.

I'm fucking ecstatic to have been wrong.

I was skeptical of the party’s ability to muster up a good candidate with Biden dropping out this late. And most of all, I wanted it to be Biden’s decision, not his party abandoning him.

Harris is coming out strong and gives me great confidence, though. So I respect Biden’s decision and am excited to vote for Harris, while I’d have settled to vote for Biden.