Warren ends wine cave offensive

[left-of-center2012]

Wine caves are out. Universal child care, student loan debt, and political corruption are in.

After Elizabeth Warren’s bumpy ride as a front-runner this past fall — her fundraising has slipped and she’s stalled in national and state polls — the Massachusetts senator is done with the attacks against former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and reverting to the approach that helped power her initial rise in the polls.

When asked here Thursday about Buttigieg’s $24.7 million fundraising haul, Warren would only say, “I didn’t spend one single minute selling access to my time to millionaires and billionaires.”
Then she pivoted to her gratitude for her own donors.

The moves are part of an attempt to return to the core messaging and stay-above-fray style that served her so well for much of the campaign. But it’s also an effort to move beyond her recent slog.

Some voters are glad to see Warren go back to her “I’m not here to criticize other Democrats” creed.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/04/warren-2020-strategy-093641

[George II]

1. I think there was more incoming than there was outgoing with that attack. It wasn't a wise thing...

...to do, particularly since a mere year earlier she participated in similar (although not in "wine caves&quot fundraisers.

[Cha]

11. Exactly.. we knew it at the time.

[highplainsdem]

2. LOL! Warren might have been smart enough not to mention wine caves again, but she was sniping at

Buttigieg again with this line, which was her first reaction when his fundraising total was mentioned:

“I didn’t spend one single minute selling access to my time to millionaires and billionaires.”

Even that's a mistake when Buttigieg wisely pointed out what Warren's fundraising was like in the past, before she decided to do purity-test campaigning.

It was another purer-than-thou line, and IMO, though it might appeal to Warren supporters, it simply makes her look hypocrtical to people who aren't already her supporters.

[Cha]

12. Yep.. EW opened herself up to it.

[BeyondGeography]

3. Typical dim-witted Politico fare

Guess who she’s talking about in the New Year’s Eve speech?

We begin this fight with a hard truth: No one who has power in Washington is going to give it up easily. Many corporate executives and career politicians and billionaires on both sides of the aisle want to keep their influence and their wealth. And they are already deep in the fight to do so.

Look at the facts.

Americans overwhelmingly believe that health care is a basic human right. But the private health insurance industry is dumping millions of dollars in false TV ads to scare people away from any change. And the corporate interests know which candidates for president are on their side.

A huge majority of Americans support a wealth tax. But billionaires are on TV claiming that it’s impossible to get it done anyway, so we shouldn’t bother trying. The billionaires know which candidates for president are on their side.

An overwhelming majority of Americans want to reduce the influence of money in politics. But wealthy donors are lined up, checkbooks in hand, buying their chance to lobby candidates privately and maybe even get to be appointed ambassador. And you better believe the big donors know which candidates for president are on their side.

The billionaires, the corporate executives and their favorite presidential candidates have one clear goal: To convince you that everything you imagine is impossible. To convince you that reform is hopeless. To convince you that because no one can be pure, it’s pointless to try to make anything better.

Those with power—and those who do their bidding—dump an endless avalanche of excuses, misdirections, and distractions on the American people. It’s all designed to get us to give up and resign ourselves to the way things are—with them in power and everyone else left behind.

But we know in our hearts that power in America can rest with the people. We can and we must have an economy and a democracy that finally works for everyone.

Business-as-usual and those who engage in it remains very much on the menu, just not the venues where it occurs.

[Gothmog]

4. These attacks did not help and may have hurt her campaign

Link to tweet

Some voters are glad to see Warren go back to her “I’m not here to criticize other Democrats” creed.

“The whole wine cave thing was blown out of proportion,” said Jim Martin, a 48-year-old from Hopkinton who is undecided and brought a baseball for Warren to sign after a Thursday event in Concord. “Campaigns cost money.”

Dick Hesse, a retired 86-year-old from Hopkinton who is also undecided, echoed that sentiment. “It didn’t make sense and it was meaningless,” he said of the wine cave attacks.

Even some volunteers for the Warren campaign such as Mary Shelby — an 81-year-old retiree from Pittsfield — said they found the attacks “disappointing.”

[MineralMan]

5. Warren seems to be running out of ammunition at this point.

Does she have a plan for what to do next?

[The Valley Below]

8. I know what I'd like to see her do.

Drop the populist rhetoric, but at the same time strongly champion the issues of financial consumer protection and bankruptcy, where she's the undisputed expert.

Without demagoguing the issues, Warren has the capacity to make the case for needed regulations that could prevent everyday people from getting ripped off by usury and abusive lending practices.

She could advance the ball in a significant fashion. I like to see her own this issue.

[msongs]

6. multi millionaire warren. whats she worth 10 mil or so. nt

[renate]

7. good. that was a bad approach

For one thing, I don't like seeing Democrats attack other Democrats for things that are perfectly legal but just a different approach.

And two... well, it's kind of the same thing. It was a holier-than-thou attitude towards a legal and effective form of fund-raising. However, I must admit that it appealed to my daughter, who didn't like the way Pete was taking in big checks from rich people as opposed to Elizabeth's smaller checks from non-rich people. I just happen to disagree with my daughter; like Pete said, we shouldn't fight Trump with one hand tied behind our back.

She's still my ride-or-die candidate, of course. I'm relieved to see her drop this.

[David__77]

9. I appreciate that Warren raised the issue of funding and access.

I imagine that she helped pave the way for this issue to be revisited in the months ahead.

[Gothmog]

10. Mayor Pete won this round