Dan Balz warns us not to over-interpret the results,”It is important to emphasize that this was simply one group of 12 people.” Naturally, we can’t draw many conclusions from what 12 people think about anything. But we are nonetheless invited to do precisely that. It appears that Elizabeth Warren has broken through!!
The two-hour session, moderated by Democratic pollster Peter Hart for the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, turned upside down much of the conversation about the coming presidential campaign, where Bush and Clinton occupy so much space.
Indeed, the participants from Aurora, Colorado described Jeb as a greedy clown and a joke. Hillary was called untrustworthy and “more of the same.” But they all seemed to like Senator Warren.
Quick impressions voiced about her were highly positive: “Passionate.” “Smart.” “Sincere.” “Knowledgeable.” “Intelligent.” “Capable.” One person said, “questionable.” That was as close to a negative reaction as she got in that round.
There were other signs that Warren, who has said repeatedly that she is not running for president in 2016, had caught the eyes and ears of people in the room. She was the popular choice as a next-door neighbor, seen as genuine and personable. Even one of the most conservative members of the group said this.
Several said that if they could pick from a long list of national politicians, they would prefer to have the chance to have a long conversation with Warren, describing her as both articulate and down to earth. “She’s a strong woman, and I’d like to sit down and pick her brain,” said Susan Brink, an independent who backed President Obama.
Howard, an independent who voted Republican in both 2012 and 2014, was among those who offered an admiring view of Warren. “If she ran, I think she could be the next president,” she said.
I’m ready to pretty much dismiss this entire article as another ridiculous exercise in using bad methodology to reach highly dubious conclusions. But, the one thing that I think is a significant finding is that these suburban Denver residents have actually heard of Warren and heard her message.
She is, after all, just one of a hundred senators, and she represents a state that is 1,900 miles away from Denver.
It’s encouraging that this focus group also liked Warren, both personally and her message. But they aren’t a valid sample size.
What matters is that Warren is succeeding in getting noticed at a time when people are tuning politics out more than ever.
She oozes integrity, and clarity. I don’t know if she has the right skill set to be President, but I wouldn’t mind finding out.
We would only find out if she has the right skill set to be president if she actually got elected president.
Which happens in a national election.
Considering she ran behind Obama — 53.7% to 60.7% of the vote — in the same election, in what is probably the bluest, or second-bluest, state in the Union, that doesn’t seem like an opportunity we’re likely to get…
She has said multiple times that she won’t run, and I like her right where she is in the Senate.
To get the results we want, we have to elect a Democratic president AND a Democratic Congress. That becomes more likely if Warren stays in the Senate while Hillary wins overwhelmingly.
Agreed. I like Warren as a Senator. I also like that she appears to be getting national attention for her views. I like that a lot.
I hope she stays there, too.
I don’t want my choice in the primary between write-in voting for undead zombie Eugene V. Debs and undead zombie Henry Wallace — they’re the only real progressive options, and have been, since 1948 anyways — complicated by a third choice.
how about Warren stays in the Senate and O’Malley wins. Hillary is not inevitable.
Me too. I’d even go so far as to say that the congressional elections in 2016 are even more important than the presidential race. And I think an excellent way to understand that is to look at Warren.
The fact is that the Republicans have controlled the House the whole time she’s been in the Senate, which means that she really hasn’t been able to accomplish anything. She has all kinds of idea, but Boehner isn’t even going to allow a vote on any of them.
And of course she’ll have even less opportunity to do anything meaningful in the next Congress. But at the same time, the Republicans don’t have a veto-proof majority, so there’s no chance of them accomplishing anything consequential either. The best we can hope for is that the Capitol is still standing two years from now.
But this is a very dangerous situation. The Republican strategy for opposing Obama remains what it was before: to abdicate their responsibilities. Total obstruction. But of course when Congress refuses to do its job, it also risks making itself irrelevant. Look at all the huffing and puffing over the executive order on immigration. So far they’ve looked pretty impotent.
I mean, it’s not like the concerns over executive power are groundless. But there are times when somebody has to do something, and if Congress is just going to pout on the sidelines, then of course that gives more power to the executive.
And, finally, Elizabeth Warren is perfectly poised to restore Congress to its proper role. That would require a Democratic House and Senate, which is a tall order. But I suspect it would be much more profitable than transferring our most promising legislator to the executive branch.
Odd how even political junkies have so little appreciation of the differences between legislating and executing/managing the laws. Warren is a star in the Senate because she has depth in her area of expertise and is a natural at describing how that translates into what ordinary people need from government and crafting the legislation required to get the job done. However, that’s not enough to recommend her for POTUS. It’s just that today there are too few people like her in Congress and Governor’s mansions, and we’re grasping at straws for the leader we know we need.
I’m also concerned about her losing a couple years on the campaign trail instead of bringing these issues forward into discussion. fortunately she’s not running, though, since she’s a woman, no doesn’t really mean no for many. if all the ppl spending time trying to get her to run for pres would spend the same amount of time getting the issues into discussion then we’d be somewhere.
As we approach the inauguration of our eighteen month, 2016 POTUS election cycle, there won’t be much air and print space available to anyone but the POTUS candidates, regardless of how ridiculous, dumb, and crazy they are. So it’s understandable that liberals/progressives would champion Warren to get into the mix for such a rare voice to be heard.
What’s needed is an army of elected Democrats and Democratic candidates that are competent, principled, articulate and unapologetic social Democrats running for office. Candidates that Warren can wholeheartedly campaign with. What a waste it was last year to see her stumping for blue dogs, neoliberalcons or whatever the “I suck less than a Republican” candidates call themselves. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work well absent a like minded, party standard bearer. And so far, none exists. Have no hope that Malloy will find such a voice within himself (if it even exists, it’s in embryonic form). Clinton is very poorly positioned to appropriate Warren’s voice without looking and sounding like a flip-flopper.
Considering she had not held any major elected office before that’s not dispositive.
Considering she ran behind Obama — 53.7% to 60.7% of the vote — in the same election, …
He wasn’t running against an incumbent, she was. She was running against an All-American Playgirl model. Obama was running against Ebenezer Scrooge.
I consider myself a moderate liberal (if there is such a thing), and if Governor O’Malley doesn’t run, I’ll give Warren a good long look see. My priority would be learning about her foreign policy–she seems to have remained silent on that topic. I was cool on her for that very reason, and that she seems more like a bomb thrower than a candidate from a distance. As an alternative to Clinton, she’s very appealing. She does seem tougher emotionally…not thin skinned about sexism. She doesn’t come across as a victim. I like that.
O’Malley will run. He’s sunk too much time and money into his bid to not give it a try at this point. I don’t know if he’ll win even one primary, but I think it’s fairly certain he’ll at least be part of the race for a little while. I’m considering putting in some volunteer time for him.
the “Hillary is inevitable” is about suppressing all the candidates. let’s have a primary and hopefully O’Malley will do well.
I LOOOOOOOOOOOOVES me some Senator Warren!
But imo she has three problems if she ever does decide to run:
I could be wrong.
I’d like to be wrong.
Hopefully, I’ll be proven to be wrong.
Ohhh…Liz Has been noticed…she has become enemy number one on wall street…and the gop/baggers are quite aware that America is really starting to HEAR Liz…whether or not America Listens to her is another matter…
She’s perhaps the leading current voice in the U.S. Senate – including Republicans, and while she’s not running she IS using the endless speculation and the small but boisterous anyone-but-Hillary crowd rather cannily. As a lever to push economic issues, I applaud her for it.
As for the “focus group” it’s incredibly pathetic and not worthy of being cited seriously. No product, no candidate, no campaign was every launched on a single focus group of 12 people – it’s an embarrassment.
One more thing: all the negative voices on Hillary Clinton were male. Go figure.
She’s not the leading voice in the Senate so long as she’s in the minority.
Actions — and Turtle-boy is the only one with the power to actually do anything until further notice — speak louder than words.
How many ridiculous exercises in using bad methodology to reach highly dubious conclusions have we been fed that preach the inevitability of Hillary? As with Hillary I’m content to see how things play out when actual voters vote for actual candidates.
Women all over the country have noticed Warren; and, we outnumber the men.
Her message is clear and cuts through the bull.