Elizabeth Warren Was Dismissed as Angry and Antagonistic and a Harvard Elitist All in One Day [View all]

[BlueMTexpat]

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a29727262/elizabeth-warren-angry-antagonistic-harvard-elitism/

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Nobody said this running for president thing was going to be easy, and SPW has been introduced to that simple fact ever since she began showing signs that her anti-corruption, anti-monopoly, anti-money-power message was finally breaking through. (Remember, the same people who are all doom and gloom about her possible nomination were the ones saying she was done last spring.) Since then, she has rolled out the pricing mechanism of her version of Medicare For All, which various rivals and plutocrats have jumped on, somehow eliding the obvious fact that, as long as Mitch McConnell has a Senate majority, any Democrat’s healthcare proposal is definitionally aspirational. In which case, why not go big?
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I have known SPW for almost a decade. I don’t know one person who’s met her in person, with the possible exception of Timothy Geithner and/or Larry Summers, who ever found her angry or antagonistic. In purely human terms, her likability is obvious and authentic. Purely in terms of political utility, “likability” is, in this case, being weaponized in contravention of the observable experience of thousands of people. This is not merely a "more vigorous phase of the debate." It’s complete nonsense and it should be evaluated as such.
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As for the piece in TBOTP ["Tiger Beat on the Potomac"], well, a lot of it depends on a attack plan devised in 2012 by Scott Brown, which is to say, to quote the thing is to refute it. Brown ran one of most brainless, stupid campaigns in modern history. He had two clear advantages going into the election: he was the incumbent and people really liked him. He had a compelling personal story and he sounded like everyone’s favorite soccer Dad. And then his campaign geniuses decided he should campaign like a drive-time radio host.
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And it didn’t work. I mean, it failed spectacularly. One of the reasons it failed was that SPW got around the state and met so many people that Brown looked like at best an idiot and, at worst, a liar and a bully. She won over the late mayor of Boston, Tom Menino, who was the very model of a blue-collar pol, and someone who’d largely sat out the election that put Brown in the Senate. Brown never really found his footing again. I guess it’s somewhat to his credit that he was an unconvincing bully. But he lost that election by following the game plan that TBOTP "obtained."
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Much more at the link. Charles Pierce is having lots of fun. But he is also serious. Like him, I too would like to see a campaign that is covered neither like a sporting event nor performance art. But also like him, I'm not holding my breath.