“We aren’t wealthy or well-connected,” reads a post on the site. “We don’t have any lobbyists. What we are is a movement of individuals working together who believe that folks like us should have a greater say in the direction of our country. We Are Ready for Elizabeth Warren to run for President in 2016. Warren is the backbone that the Democratic Party too often forgets it needs.”Warren herself does not support the effort and insists that she is not running. Nevertheless, the Atlantic describes Warren's efforts for other candidates in such red states as Kentucky and West Virginia. Her appearances on the campaign trail in these areas prove, to some, that she has a crossover appeal lacking in a certain other Democrat.
Are the Republicans secretly promoting a Warren-Clinton battle? Maybe. See, for example, here.
Of course, to strategists on the right, Warren is simply another horse in a horse race; they can't see her in any other terms. But her ventures into places like West Virginia underline a fundamental political fact which other Democrats would do well to heed: A message of economic populism works. Even a rural southern Baptist will hear out a Massachusetts liberal, if that liberal tells the truth about how the New York elitists rob working folk.
That's the lesson which Elizabeth Warren is trying to teach the Democratic party, and it's not too late for Hillary to take it to heart. Right now, Hillary seems intent on being Obama II -- or, perhaps, Bush IV. She's the insider, as hawkish as a Dem may dare to be, dedicated to the proposition that free trade cures all economic ills. In 2008, the Kos crowd created a False Hillary which stood in contrast to their False Obama. Today, we know what the real Obama is like -- while Hillary seems to have become more like the person she was once wrongly accused of being.
Will she get into the White House that way? I don't think so.
The Republicans obviously want Warren to run because they like the idea of a fractured Democratic electorate. But a fracture could be beneficial, if only because democracy is better served by a lively debate than by a coronation. Warren represents a true change. Does Hillary?
10 comments:
Joseph,
I personally think Elizabeth Warren would make a better POTUS than Hillary Clinton, and would be a much better person to claim the fame of first female ever to be Commander in Chief.
That aside, I was wondering if you could speak, or write on, what you think of the Six Californias movement. So far, the Six Californias proposal has garnered over 800,000 signatories from the home State, California, which it would effect the most. The movement seeks to hold a referendum in 2016 to institute a break-up of California into six new states. One of those proposed States is that of Jefferson, which had its own movement long before the Six Californias one. Apparently, the region that would make up Jefferson (including part of Southern Oregon) is absolutely obsessed with the GOP and has not elected anyone other than a Republican (for any local, regional or other office) in over twenty years.
Would you tell us what you think of the Six Californias proposal and also how popular you know it to actually be in California? Would California benefit if the Republican Party obsessed northern regions were to break from rest of an otherwise Democratic California?
Although I am more to the left than most democrats but find myself closer to Hillary than Warren. Something about Warren seems untrue or phoney.
If the Republicans win the Senate in 2014, it will be hard times for Obama and the country for the remainder of his term. This could lead to a Republican win of the White House in 2016. Even if the Senate is held be the Democrats we will need a strong Democratic candidate to win in 2016. I fear that if Warren is nominated she will end up like George McGovern in 1972. A person with great liberal ideas but will be unelectable for the voting public.
Warren's message is one that Hillary Clinton cannot afford to miss or ignore. Elizabeth Warren's populist message is wildly popular because despite the positive economic news, the stock market pushing through 17,000, the majority of Americans have been left behind. The American middle-class has been squashed and the poor are getting poorer.
Hillary became a better candidate when Obama was biting her during the 2008 campaign. And her message [remember Ohio?] became decidedly populist in nature. She needs to revisit that. Warren will push her there. What a tag team!
Am I surprised the GOP is heady with excitement? Hardly. Rush Limbaugh loved the Obama/Clinton contest, did everything he could to stir things up.
Same old, same old. Because the GOP has nothing.
Peggysue
I like Warren's positions but SOS Clinton is the best politician in either party so she is much likely to be able to actually get an agenda implemented by Congress.
The only thing close to Hillary's heart is the presidency. Her stance as a populist will be as authentic as Obama's, or Bill's, and we'll get the same results. This is assuming she can somehow convince the left to vote for her and all her baggage and the right not to unite behind their hatred of her. She's a terrible candidate and will be another terrible president.
I would like to like Warren, but regarding ME and I/P policy, I'm pretty sure she'd be every bit as bad as Clinton, if not worse.
Phil K
The only problem I have with her right now is that she acts like her heart isn't in it. She is different from 2008. She give me the impression like whatever!! That's why I think she isn't running. Too bad for us. My position is that the panic she generates in some powerful quarters at the idea of her presidency speaks volumes
I like Elizabeth Warren.
Maybe this will get posted.
Hillary is a corporatist tool, just like Bill or Obama. Elizabeth Warren sounds so good, but let's remember she's a multimillionaire, for all her populist talk.
Still, if the Dems want to beat whatever walking abortion the republiCons are going to run, it will have to be Hillary.
Wouldn't it be nice - just for once - to be able to vote for someone who wasn't the lesser of two evil?
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