I think you're also missing a huge part of it. People don't care about Gaza nearly as much as people here think, nor do people care about her race or gender much.

You can see a massive shift in betting odds and polls around the time she had an interview where she said she wouldn't have done anything different than Biden. My general perception is that she didn't really have a plan, and I think that's true for the public. I also think the public didn't like the comparison of Trump with Hitler. Trump, on the other hand, claimed to have a plan for fixing the economy, and I think that resonated with people, especially since the economy was good under Trump. They see the inflation during COVID as Biden's problem (I personally blame supply chain disruption mostly, and also Trump's spending), and Harris refused to throw Biden under the bus.

I personally blame Harris's loss on three things:

• late entry - Biden should've dropped out sooner so they could have a real primary
• lack of real difference vs Biden
• running mate choice - should've picked Shapiro from Pennsylvania, not Walz

I don't think her being female hurt her, and it probably helped her appeal to female voters vs Trump, and Obama winning implies race doesn't matter much either. To me, it comes down to policy and lack of a primary. People wanted change, while she offered more of the same. If you don't believe me, watch some interviews with people in swing states and listen to what they're most interested in.