Complaints among Democratic activists and influencers over the DNC’s decision to abort its 2024 “autopsy report” was based on a craving for two things: (1) a clear “who done it” assessment of blame for Kamala Harris’s loss to Donald Trump, and (2) a clear path forward for the party, in terms of its left-or-center ideological direction and its message to voters.

Now DNC chairman Ken Martin has released an extremely unfinished draft of the “autopsy” report, and those who wanted this to happen are going to be very disappointed — or perhaps even horrified. While the draft written by consultant Paul Rivera offers many granular observations about what went wrong in 2024 and what Democrats need to do going forward, there is neither an assessment nor a prescription that rises to the level of offering clarity to anguished Democratic Party members. Instead, the message that comes through is that Democrats are still processing what happened and what to do about it, but you’ll have to get back to them later for anything the least bit definitive. “Democrats really are in disarray” is the unmistakable takeaway.

To begin, the 192-page draft is literally incomplete, with an executive summary and a conclusion that might have somewhat tied it together entirely missing. Just as important, the released version includes marginal notes from DNC staff that constantly call into question a vast number of the author’s arguments and data points. In case you miss the effort to distance the party from the document, every page carries this disclaimer: “This document reflects the views of the author, not the DNC. The DNC was not provided with the underlying sourcing, interviews, or supporting data for many of the assertions contained herein and therefore cannot independently........

© Daily Intelligencer