RATIONALE: It’s all Joe Biden’s fault. His spending resulted in inflation. He didn’t do enough to sell the economy to the American people. Then he waited too long to drop out. Harris didn’t have a chance. REALITY: This one contains germs of truth, but nothing more than that. Biden deserves far more credit than he got for bringing the country back after the pandemic; his spending was authorized by Congress, and only caused a small part of the spike in inflation. He wasn’t a successful salesman, partly because he didn’t command the spotlight the way Trump does, but based on the results of elections in the rest of the world, it is unlikely he would have convinced the public even if he had tried harder. As to the timing of his decision to drop out, it still gave Harris a chance, and does anyone believe a different Democratic nominee–even one who wasn’t part of the administration–would have avoided responsibility for inflation? I have serious doubts about that.