Harry Enten Says 'No Light at the End of the Tunnel' for Democrats, No Real Heir Apparent

CNN’s polling guru Harry Enten was pretty good on the presidential election—he was sounding the alarm early and often that Donald Trump had a real shot at winning, which he eventually did by huge numbers. Now he’s got more bad news for Democrats—they could be looking at a long period in the desert because they have nobody in the bullpen, and by losing the Senate, the House, and the presidency, they have no real power.

I say: break out the champagne.

He pulled no punches:

“Everywhere you look, the Democrats are in this deep, dark state because they have no heir apparent, the incumbent president’s unpopular, and they hold no levers of power in Washington, most likely, come January,” Enten told CNN anchor John Berman.
“The bottom line is this: For Democrats, there’s no real light at the end of the tunnel. It’s always darkest before it’s pitch black,” Enten added, attributing that line to the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Ouch ouch ouch. Watch:

CNN’s Harry Enten declared that there was “no light at the end of the tunnel” for Democrats and that things are “always darkest before its pitch black.” pic.twitter.com/lZYaVnNEB6
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) November 12, 2024

He’s right. Who is going to be the next Democrat leader, their next presidential candidate? Certainly not Kamala Harris—you don’t come back from a loss that resounding. The names often floating out there are Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, and the worst of the lot, California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Of those names, only Shapiro holds the gravitas of a possible presidential contender. The rest come across as leftist loonies. Newsom in my view would suffer the same outcome as Kamala Harris—he may do well in a solid-blue progressive state where he is largely untested, but on the national scene, he’ll faceplant just as she did. I would certainly hope so, for all our sakes.

We don’t need that vision spread across the fruited plain.

There is always the chance that an unlikely star pops up, though, like Barack Obama or… Bill Clinton:

“There’s no heir apparent,” Enten said. “We can see this perhaps best by … taking a look at the early poll leader for 2028: There isn’t one. There’s no early favorite there. There’s no early clear favorite, and that is really unusual.”
Enten made the argument that the last time Democrats had no “heir apparent” was ahead of the 1992 presidential race. In that cycle, then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton beat a crowded field to become the party’s presidential nominee. He went on to win the presidency, becoming the first Democrat to do so at that time in 12 years.

Now this is CNN we’re talking about here, so they had to try and put a positive spin on all this for the Democrats:

ANCHOR JOHN BERMAN: …maybe they’re better off.
ENTEN: Maybe they’re better off. Because remember, Hillary Clinton, even though she was seen to be the heir apparent going into the 2008 campaign, of course it was Barack Obama, who basically came out of nowhere, after that ’04 convention speech, to go on and win the nomination.
“So it might actually be good news for Democrats that there’s no heir apparent, but the bottom line is there isn’t one,” he added.

Or it might be a sign that they’re in trouble for a long, long time. It couldn't happen to a nicer group of folks. Bless their hearts.