I like that Warrenās out there throwing policy around and just coming out with all these plans. I donāt know how far sheāll make it but, sheās got some great ideas and some great answers
āThis is the race I want to run,ā Warren insisted in an interview with The Associated Press.
āI know that the way Iāve decided to run my campaign means that Iām leaving millions of dollars on the table,ā
Good for her.
I donāt know if itās good for her candidacy or for our country if she is indeed the right candidate, but good for her.
Warrenās on fire and impresses everyone who sees her, as opposed to hearing about her on the media. She could surprise. Sheāll be immense the debates.
Looking at the likely primary calendar,she has to do well in the first 4 states to have a chance. California and Texas both will be on Super Tuesday. I expect that the field will be whittled down to maybe a half-dozen candidates by Super Tuesday and no more than 3-4 after that.
I donated a little and I am going to donate more. She moves the debate and the issues. She explains her positions clearlyā¦
There is Warren
There is What She Says
One of them has got to make it to the White House
I hope itās the latter. I think Warren herself will be more valuable to the nation as a long-serving, vocal, progressive Senator.
I agreeā¦and we have GOT to get her financial message out there.
If I were advising Warren, I would tell her that her issue is not policy, itās politics. I think most Dems do acknowledge and/or admire her policy chops. That includes those who do not have her as a first or even second choice. I think she has run a very good campaign thus far since she declared. But her issue remains politics.
She still carries around the baggage of how she positioned herself within the party prior to running. She didnāt really have a clear constituency among Obama voters, Clinton voters or Bernie voters. She has the support of regulatory focused policy wonk voters. There are more of them than you might think, but thatās not really enough. To win the primary, she has to beat Bernie in NH. Massachusetts is bigger than Vermont. There are more people in NH with Mass ties than VT ties. How does she do it? I would suggest two things:
- Hit Trump and his criminal cronies hard. Go there on Russia. If she sounded like folks on TPM talk about the Russia scandal, sheād definitely gain attention. Say that āWe already know that Trump has betrayed the Republic. Heās corrupt beyond belief. He doesnāt serve you. He serves Putin, the Saudis and his bank account. I donāt know what the Mueller report and Congress will do, but I know enough to know that he shouldnāt be in office and more than that he and all of his cronies should be prosecuted. When Iām President, I will continue the investigations and proscecute him/them.ā At the end of the day, Democratic voters want Trump out of office but they also want justice. With Pelosi thinking tactically (almost preemptively) about impeachment and essentially holding her fire for now, itās a good place for a candidate to step in and address something that is deep within the Democratic psyche.
Another angle here is to tell voters what Trump would be like in a second term. For example, Trump would completely whack health care because he has already proposed cutting $1 trillion out of medicare/medicaid.
2.Hit Bernie hard. Bernieās two advantages in the states where he is popular are: the perception of electability and the perception that heās a change agent with a strong loyal following, campaign and financing to boot. She needs to break that in a few ways. First, Bernie has a super pac. He has that funky tax return issue. He had the shady Sanders Institute. Thatās not really being a change agent. Thatās manipulating the system. It raises questions about his authenticity, ethics and raises issues that the GOP will attack him on. Second, his policies are a weak spot. He raises too many taxes and has policies which arenāt clearly defined. So people see a lot of money going out the door but donāt know what theyāre getting in return. She, on the other hand, pays for her stuff. (sheāll need to explain her m4a transition plan though). This gets Warren to her sweet spot of talking policy, but she can do so in a way that shows the cost-benefit analysis to the people. This also allows her to make the distinction between a āsocialistā and a āDemocratā. Third, sheāll need to rally HRC voters in NH who voted for her in either 2008 and/or 2016 to her side. To do that, she should argue that Bernie didnāt back HRC strongly, held out too long, and damaged her. HRC voters remember that and it raises a question as to whether Bernie can unite the party in the general election. This gets at Bernieās political viability. Heāll get hit by the GOP on this stuff while being unable to unite the party.
No matter what issues Warren addresses, coverage of her campaign invariably veers back to the āNative Americanā business. This kind of lazy journalism is among the reasons our politics remains mired in Stupid.
That said, I must agree with those who prefer that she remain a Senator. Itās thrilling to contemplate what she might be able to accomplish in a Senate reclaimed by the Democrats.
I think very highly of Elizatbeth Warren, I also think that she would be most effective in the Senate after she has had a chance to use the bully pulpit of the campaign trail for a whileā¦
Imagine her as the chair of the Senate Finance committee? I relish the thoughtā¦
She would actually be most effective as President rather than 1 if 100 Senators, no matter what position of leadership she may have there.
We hear that āshe should remain in the Senateā by a significant number of commenters here. It would be interesting to hear who these folks actually prefer in the primaries. The cynic in me thinks that some of these people want her to yield to someone else that they prefer because she poses a threat to that candidate.
I think a lot of primary voters are making decisions on who can clobber Trump in a debate, more so than any policies. Sadly, Warrenās policies are topnotch, but she doesnāt seem the type to do well in the mud fight that Trump will turn the debate into (assuming he does debate). I feel the same about Mayor Pete (who Iāve come to like very much) and Beto, who did not go after Cruz hard enough in their last debate.
I think Sanders (I am not Bernie Bro) would do very well. As would Harris. I thought Biden would at one point, but the last time I heard him talk he seemed very old and tired.
That being said, by the time I finally get to vote in a primary the candidate will be decided. So this is only an exercise in TPM commenting at mostā¦
I really like her so much but I have never thought she could get to the presidency. Sheās a valuable senator. She does good work in the senate.
and OT: Donna Brazile is going to work for Fox News. https://www.rawstory.com/2019/03/fox-news-viewers-lose-network-hires-donna-brazile-instead-lifting-jeanine-pirros-suspension/
Yep. I like how OāRourke and Buttigieg talk in general (and even Sanders, though his actual voice grates on me). But Warren is the only one who has actual ideas and is able to articulate them.
Yeah, thatās the problem with these AP reports. They invariably fall back on the easiest tropes. That and the āletās put some anecdotal quotes and call it dataā approach.
Unlike some here, I have no hidden agenda; the current slate of Dems provides a embarrassment of riches to choose from, any number of them would be a fine President. My opinion of EW is driven by two factors, one is that I believe that she has lower electability than other candidates, the second, which I alluded to above, is that she would be absolutely kick ass as the chair of Senate finance or at very worst the ranking memberā¦
I want Trump to be absolutely humiliated in 2020ā¦
PS Warren does have the best ideas (along with Bernie), but this is not a policy election, this is about who will articulate a vision of Americaās future and provide a solid rebuke to Trumpismā¦
ā¦ Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders can maintain his early place at the head of the presidential primary pack.
Huh? Is this really true?