Yeah I'm inclined to think anybody at the top of the ticket would have still been saddled with a large part of the blame voters were looking to dispense.
I'm gonna disagree with you and
@Brainonska511 . Harris is the Veep, and so she's essentially the incumbent candidate. OTOH Shapiro or Buttigieg wouldn't carry quite that same baggage.
Add to this that Kamala Harris a Black woman that triggers some folks racism and misogyny, and you get a recipe for
losing the national popular vote. That's an absolute debacle and I can't sit here and say any alternative would have performed just the same. Going 0/7 in the battlegrounds? Yesterday was a fucken nightmare, combining the worst of 2016 and 2006.
Having said that, Joe Biden was sunk so I endorsed his quitting the race at the 11th hour. Given the terrible timing (thanks Joe!), I accepted then and now that Harris was our gal. Unfortunately it blew up in our faces, and we'll seemingly live with the consequences for a long time.
We also got spanked in the Senate races, so you're right that voters decided to punish the Dems as a whole. It wasn't strictly a Kamala Harris problem.
Edit:
Maybe I'll take that last part back. Looks like we'll win some of these Senate seats by just a hair, in states that Harris lost or is losing in. So she seemingly dragged other Dems down with her, but a few of them might survive. (Slotkin took a narrow lead, Rosen trails but I see enough votes remaining in Clark County. And Kari Lake is still within striking distance FFS.)