“You find out that life is just a game of inches. So is football. Because in either game, life or football, the margin for error is so small.” – Al Pacino as coach Tony D’Amato in the film “Any Given Sunday”

I mentioned last week I had a hunch about whom the winner of the election would be.

Donald Trump was my guess. I felt good about it. Then on election day, for fun, I decided to fill out one of those online maps that allow you to predict the winner of each state. I immediately second guessed my hunch.

The moral of the story is I do not have the fortitude to stick with my gut. If I was a betting man, my bookie would see to it that my thumbs would remain broken for the rest of my days.

So, Donald Trump’s victory came as no surprise. The surprise was his ability to sweep every single state considered a toss-up this year. Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona all went to Trump’s column of the ledger.

The thoroughness of the loss against a candidate such as Trump – who is clearly formidable but also carries obvious flaws – will lead to soul searching within the national Democratic Party. It also represents the end of any presidential aspirations for Kamala Harris, likely forever but certainly for at least the next couple of election cycles.

There are dozens of factors that contributed to this outcome, some beyond Harris’ control and some self-inflicted wounds. Here are a few that stood out to me enough to play Monday morning quarterback.

Looking back, the die might have already been cast for this race way back in February when both Trump and Joe Biden were being investigated concerning their retention of classified documents after their terms as president and vice president, respectively, concluded.

Robert K. Hur was appointed by the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the Biden case and make a recommendation as to if Biden should face any criminal charges.

Hur’s February report recommended Biden not face any criminal charges, but this proved to be a hollow victory for Biden as Hur’s reasoning for his recommendation included his belief a jury would not convict “a well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

Biden and his supporters tried to fight back against Hur’s characterization as cheap and inflammatory, but as the campaign went on, Hur’s assessment of Biden appeared accurate and loomed increasingly larger.

As financial support dried up and calls to leave the race began coming from within his own party, Biden was forced to end his campaign in mid-July.

Almost immediately he endorsed Harris to take his place as the Democratic nominee despite Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign never getting any real traction showing she lacked cachet with the Democratic base.

Democrats were stuck between a rock and hard place at this point – go along with the sitting president’s endorsement of a weak candidate or try the riskier option of holding a true open convention at the August Democratic National Convention.

The party might find a stronger candidate at the convention, but if the party could not reach a consensus at the convention and fractured over the person ultimately chosen, doom would be certain.

The party chose the safer option and got in line behind Harris with hopes the change would energize the Democratic base and bring back voters concerned about Biden’s fitness to serve another term. The strategy did not work.

Harris was weighed down by earlier further-left political stances taken when running for office in heavily Democratic California and her prominent role in the Biden administration’s undocumented immigration policy – a role both thankless and mostly impossible without any significant legislation coming through Congress.

Harris herself likely erred in her choice of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her vice-presidential running mate. Perhaps the Harris campaign believed the folksy Walz could help Harris make inroads with rural voters, but this proved ineffective as they were trounced in rural districts across the country.

Choosing a running mate from a toss-up state – like Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shaprio – could have helped her grab at least one of those states, though the overall outcome probably would have remained the same.

We will never know what decisions could have flipped this election. The margins in this race were so tight, a small change here or there could have reversed the outcome. On the other hand, the country is so divided, even small margins feel insurmountable.

What we do know is Donald Trump is the president-elect. As we should for elected officials at any level and from any party, we will hope he is successful in carrying out the colossal responsibilities of the office.