General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Hillary Clinton's suffocating presence/The Economist [View all]cascadiance
(19,537 posts)... and it was many of those conservative Democrats that were pushed in to office by the DCCC that lost in 2010 and in 2014.
When you keep progressive Dems out of congress even within one's own party, it isn't hard to see why it's been really hard to have many progressive Dems as alternatives. And many who do have progressive viewpoints (I consider my Senator Jeff Merkley one of them) aren't pushed in to the limelight by the corporate media where they can build a following.
Warren had a unique circumstance of being kept out of heading up the CFPB by the Republicans, and then being fortunate that Coakley ran such a brain-dead campaign to lose to Scott Walker when replacing Ted Kennedy to get that opportunity of being in the Senate. Those sequence of circumstances that allowed her in to the Senate do not happen too many times.
That is why those who have great progressive credentials we need to continue to push up the ladder and not just tell them to stay where they are. If Warren steps up and becomes president, I have no doubt that Massachusetts will find another decent senator to replace her with, and perhaps we'll have more progressive options to choose from later. Given that she's not running for her Senate seat in 2016, she doesn't need to choose between running for the Senate and the presidency either.