Why did Kamala Harris lose? According to a loud segment of the media, it was clearly the rampant misogyny and racism of a sick society.

The fact that inflation nearly tripled from the Trump administration to the Biden-Harris term, that the cost of a mortgage was up more than 80 percent, that millions more illegal immigrants poured across the border without consequence, and that two major, intractable wars started could not possibly be the reason.

To admit that Joe Biden’s term has been an economic and geopolitical failure would be just too painful. It’s so much more satisfying to put the blame on an amorphous concept like misogyny. And it’s easy, too — a woman lost, therefore misogyny.

The reality is, this kind of blame shifting is intellectually lazy and dishonest. To blame misogyny is not only certain to turn off millions of voters, but also likely to prove toxic when it comes time to select the Democratic nominee in 2028.

Winning the presidency is difficult. Only 40 individuals have been elected president in their own right. Meanwhile, there have been 61 general-election losers (counting the two major parties and serious “third party” candidates like Ross Perot). Fifty-nine of those losers were white men (Barack Obama puts black men at a potent 100 percent success rate) and two were women.

When you look at the nomination process, the number of losers is even higher. Starting in 1960, the first election where party primaries truly helped determine the nominee, 106 individuals have........

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