Hillary Clinton’s Biggest Threat Isn’t a Republican — It’s Elizabeth Warren

[RiverLover]

Hillary Clinton’s Biggest Threat Isn’t a Republican — It’s Elizabeth Warren
11/10/2014

The inevitability of Hillary Clinton is approaching the inevitability of the sun setting in the west. Her polling among Democrats ranks her "the most dominant front-runner at this stage of a Presidential contest in the Party's modern history," according to the New Yorker. There is no other potential candidate for the presidency in the Republican Party who commands comparable levels of institutional backing, celebrity and experience.

Politico insists that the Republican shadow campaign to destroy Clinton is the defining aspect of 2016. But Clinton's most vexing thorn may very well lie in her own party.

Enter Warren: Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the near-extinct breed of Democrat who has national stature and uses it to speak ill of Wall Street, has signed a letter supporting Clinton's near-certain run for the presidency and has repeatedly made it clear that she's not running for president.

But in October she evolved on the issue and implied that she didn't want to close any doors. And the stir caused at a rally where she and Clinton spoke recently suggests that even if she doesn't ever take Clinton on directly, her magnetic strength with the progressive base of the Democratic Party symbolizes one of Clinton's and the Democratic establishment's greatest weaknesses.

A revealing stumble: A few days before the midterm elections, Warren and Clinton spoke at a rally to support Martha Coakley's bid for Massachusetts governor. Coakley lost, but the rally is interesting for other reasons.

Warren spoke first and hardly mentioned Clinton, according to Politico. In Clinton's remarks, she went to great lengths to embrace Warren and sounded an unusually populist note throughout her speech and made a striking remark for someone angling for the White House: "Don't let anybody tell you that it's corporations and businesses that create jobs."



...Psychoanalyzing gaffes is often a waste of time, but in this case it offers some insight. Out of her element on Warren's turf, Clinton overcompensated for her history as a wealthy Wall Street Democrat. She was not convincing to the progressives who are disillusioned with the Democrat's relationship with the middle class nor equipped to stand her ground when criticized by the right. This kind of clumsy, neither-here-nor-there positioning foreshadows Clinton's serious challenges on economic issues in the run-up to 2016.

...That will require serious work and commitment, and many progressives are not convinced she's the right woman for the job. Until they are, the chatter for Warren to jump into the presidential race and keep Clinton in check will only persist.

http://mic.com/articles/103882/why-elizabeth-warren-is-the-biggest-threat-facing-hillary-clinton

[GitRDun]

1. I'm hoping people are underestimating Joe Biden

He wiped the floor with Paul Ryan in the debates.

He's pretty good with people.

A lot of his alleged "gaffes" seem like him saying what's on his mind.

Here's hoping...

[NYC_SKP]

2. The Triple Threat will take down Hillary Clinton. It's a Bitter Pill in Three Parts:

First, the Republicans. They want their own person in there, a Republican Republican, not a Democratic Republican, and they are loaded for bear and have been working their negative campaign strategies against her for 7 years or longer. It's not going to be pretty and I've never seen her convincingly defend herself or call them out.


Second, Warren. Warren and Sanders and other increasingly vocal and visible progressives have a message that reaches more people than many realize. Warren is the real deal and it's plain to see. She doesn't fart around during interviews and she doesn't back down. You don't hear double-talk or backtracking.
Hillary loses any open debate with her, any objective comparison goes to Warren.


Finally, Clinton herself. Her sorry performance trying to adopt Warren's and Obama's "you didn't build that" message fell flat as a pancake. Her own record on key issues makes her look like just another dishonest politician, and her friends in industry, especially global industries, banks, and elsewhere indicate that she's not one of us.

[Old Codger]

3. Actually

I pretty much think that her biggest enemy is Hillary Clinton herself...

[TheKentuckian]

11. That is correct!

[VanillaRhapsody]

4. Hilarious....since Warren supports Hillary's run!

[baldguy]

12. ^^ The one thing Warren boosters always conveniently ignore.

[msongs]

5. how bout clinton/warren. whoever dems choose needs to get the senate back and maybe the

house

[still_one]

6. Stupid article since Warren has repeatedly said she is not running and supports Hillary. People can

speculate all they want, but speculating on candidates who said they aren't running is just wishful thinking.

The most likely Democratic candidates at this time are Webb, Clinton, Sanders who I think will run as a Democrat, and perhaps Biden

It may change, but One thing that is almost certain is that Warren will not be in that list.

[JDPriestly]

7. Warren has said in the present tense that she is not running. Read that as she is not running

now, at this time. I have not seen her quoted as stating that she will not run. Please post the link if you find one of her saying she will not run in the future. Her statement is always in the present tense.

Have you read her book, A Fighting Chance?

She is the accidental politician in my view. She did not start out as the governor's wife. She worked. She is brilliant. She happened to study bankruptcy and discovered in her studies that people who go into bankruptcy are often not the irresponsible spendthrifts that many think they are. They are people who didn't have a fighting chance. Combined with her own childhood with an injured father, a mother who found herself having to return somewhat unprepared to the workforce to keep her family together, her education beginning in a small college on a shoestring working her way to be a professor of law at Harvard, Elizabeth Warren is a woman who is called to greatness. Her compassion for ordinary Americans is the result of her own struggle. Married too young. Divorced and dealing with two children, she knows how tough life can be. Elizabeth Warren is a wealthy woman. But she is called to greatness, has not lost sight of how fortunate she is to have found her way in spite of the difficulties of her childhood and youth.

I don't think Elizabeth Warren sought a political career. She slipped into because she is needed in this country. She has insights into the workings of our economy -- how the banks failed us -- how Americans are not getting a fair deal -- and she offers solutions to our economic problems.

Hillary is a totally different kind of politician. She too is idealistic. But she has not lived much of her life in the reality that you and I live in. Early on, as the wife of a governor, her path was although not easy paved more smoothly than that of Elizabeth Warren.

I really think that Elizabeth Warren is the woman and the candidate of the moment. Providence, God, a higher power, fortune, or just accident, her character, her struggle, her optimism, her fighting spirit, her love, her tact, her kindness, her courage, I could obviously go on and on. I think that Elizabeth Warren would be great for the country. I hope she runs.

I have watched this carefully. Elizabeth Warren minces no words when she criticizes the policies and appointments that Obama and the current Democratic Party leadership sponsor and that are destroying the economic opportunity of so many Americans. Americans are sick of the beltway mentality. Everyone understands that compromises are needed in a democracy. But ordinary, that is the large majority of Americans are sick of being the losers in every compromise. Americans are sick of the fact that big business and the very, very, very wealthy are the benefactors every time there is a deal.

We need someone who will fight for ordinary Americans. Elizabeth Warren is my first choice. Bernie Sanders is up there too.

[still_one]

8. People can parse the words all they like, she is not running in 2016, and we will know shortly in

the course of time

[RiverLover]

9. There are plenty of past candidates out there who've said they aren't running for prez

until they do because they don't want the press hounding them until the race begins.

And George Stephanopolous tried his VERY best to get Liz to say she endorsed Hillary for 2016 & she refused~

STEPHANOPOULOS: You've been pretty clear, and we showed it in Jeff Zeleny's piece, that you say you're not running for president in 2016. It seems like you've just affirmed it again. You also signed a letter -- several senators signed a letter earlier this year encouraging Hillary Clinton to run.
So is she your candidate in 2016?

WARREN: You know, all of the women -- Democratic women, I should say, of the Senate urged Hillary Clinton to run. And I hope she does.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You hope she does. And if she does, she is your candidate, you're going to endorse her?

WARREN: If Hillary -- Hillary is terrific.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You know, you've said she is terrific very many times. You say that again in this book, "A Fighting Chance." But this book leaves out something of a pointed criticism from your earlier book, "The Two Income Trap."

There you praised first lady Hillary Clinton for her opposition to this bankruptcy bill pushed by the big banks, but go on to talk about how she, as New York senator, seemed she could not afford that principled position.

Senator Clinton received 140,000 in campaign contributions from banking industry executives in a single year. Big banks were now part of Senator Clinton's constituency. She wanted their support, and they wanted hers, including a vote in favor of that awful bill.

So do you think that -- are you worried that somehow she will bow to big business, those were your words in that book, if she becomes president?

WARREN: Look, I've made it clear all the way through this book and really what I've been working on for the last 25 years, that I'm worried a lot about power in the financial services industry.

http://crooksandliars.com/2014/04/abcs-stephanopoulos-makes-elizabeth-warren

[RiverLover]

10. Nice post.

"I really think that Elizabeth Warren is the woman and the candidate of the moment. Providence, God, a higher power, fortune, or just accident, her character, her struggle, her optimism, her fighting spirit, her love, her tact, her kindness, her courage, I could obviously go on and on. I think that Elizabeth Warren would be great for the country. I hope she runs"

Yep.