For
most Democrats, Tuesday's elections were an across-the-board disaster
-- a collective nightmare they'd rather not dwell on for another
moment.
In the case of Elizabeth Warren, however, the 2014 midterms could end up being a call to arms.
The Massachusetts senator has repeatedly denied interest in running
for president, and there is no doubt that Hillary Clinton would remain
the overwhelming favorite to become the next Democratic nominee
regardless of whether Warren gets in the race.
But the first-term senator wouldn’t be the first ambitious politician
to change her mind about running for the nation’s highest office (see:
Obama, Barack), and the results of Tuesday’s elections crystalized the
underappreciated reasons why it makes sense for her to do just that.
At some point over the next couple of months, Warren will have to
decide whether to keep her word about 2016 or throw caution to the wind
and take on the Clinton behemoth.
Here are four reasons why she should choose the latter route.
1. She Fits the National Mood
Voters aren’t just dissatisfied with Washington, D.C. They’re angry, and they’re anxious.
According to exit
polls
conducted Tuesday, about two-thirds of voters said the country is on
the wrong tack -- an even higher percentage than said the same thing
during the Republican wave of 2010.
Additionally, voters by a 2-to-1 margin said they expect life will
get worse for the next generation of Americans, while about two-thirds
said that the economy favors the wealthy.
This sentiment is smack dab in the middle of Elizabeth Warren’s political wheelhouse.
No Democrat speaks as passionately and as effectively about issues
related to income inequality, lack of functional governance, and the
declining American middle class as Warren does. And during a campaign
season in which Democrats had little to get excited about, her
fist-pumping, high-decibel, populist harangues got crowds fired up
wherever she went.
In a modern era that requires any serious presidential candidate to
have the unquantifiable “it” factor, Elizabeth Warren already does.
No one knows this better than Hillary Clinton.
During her own appearances on the 2014 campaign trail, Clinton
attempted to co-opt some of Warren’s “defender of the little guy”
identity, telling a crowd in Boston, “Don’t let anybody tell you it’s
corporations and businesses that create jobs.”
A clear overreach, the remark drew immediate ridicule in a variety of
circles, as it was readily apparent that Clinton lacked fluency in
Warren-ese.
Unlike the former secretary of state, Warren doesn’t have to work
very hard to conjure up outrage over the privileges granted to Wall
Street or the plight of the little guy.
These frustrations are the very reasons why the former consumer
advocate entered politics in the first place, and they frame the issues
that could propel her to the next level.
2. Clinton’s Current Standing in the Polls Won’t Last
As anyone who follows politics knows, at around this time eight years
ago, Hillary Clinton was widely characterized as her party’s
“inevitable” 2008 presidential nominee.
Her eventual loss to Barack Obama demonstrated once again the folly
of considering anything in this business to be preordained. And yet,
here we go again.
Proponents of assigning the “I-word” to Clinton’s 2016 candidacy insist that this time, it’s clear for all to see, she really
is
inevitable. There is no Obama waiting in the wings, they observe. And
Clinton’s overall standing among key Democrats -- whether early state
voters, key officials, or millionaire funders -- is without rival.
The woman is ahead by almost 50 points in Iowa, for God’s sake!
But here’s the problem with this argument: Clinton’s current poll
position could change dramatically once Democrats are presented with a
real choice in 2015-16.
Warren, after all, is still somewhat of an unknown commodity.
At this point in 2006, Obama was already a household name -- a
political celebrity known for his soaring keynote address at the 2004
Democratic National Convention in Boston, as well as his compelling life
story and vision for the nation that he chronicled in his best-selling
books.
Though Warren has already become a cult hero among many left-leaning
activists, rank-and-file Democrats who aren’t political junkies just
don’t know her all that well yet.
If she were to announce her candidacy for president tomorrow, Warren
would still trail Clinton in the polls, of course, but the current gap
she faces would almost certainly narrow amid the media attention she’d
receive.
And in a one-on-one match-up, many Democrats might be surprised to
find that they respond more viscerally to the bright new star on the
scene than to the steadfast veteran whom they had expected to get
behind.
And that’s a recipe for a real campaign.
3. Someone Has to Do It
Despite her strengths, it’s difficult to conceive of a scenario in
which Clinton becomes the first non-incumbent ever to run unopposed for
her party’s nomination. Someone’s going to run against her.
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