Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Everybody saw this coming.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Bark louder, little dog.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Let there be snark.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

The willow is too close to the house.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2012 / Open Thread: “I Wasn’t Born At Harvard”

Open Thread: “I Wasn’t Born At Harvard”

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Nice little upbeat piece from Jill Lawrence at the Atlantic about Elizabeth Warren’s first day on the campaign trail:

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — “Could we get a picture? Let’s do a picture! I love doing pictures!” Elizabeth Warren exclaimed. It was Day One of her U.S. Senate campaign and about Minute Five of her visit to The Student Prince, a German bierhaus bedecked with thousands of beer mugs. And to my surprise, the bespectacled Harvard professor seemed in her element…
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[S]he will be competitive in ways that people may not expect. First, Warren seems to enjoy campaigning and demonstrates as much warmth and “relatability” as any seasoned pro on the trail. Hardly anyone went untouched of the dozens waiting to greet her at The Student Prince, the fifth and last stop of her announcement tour. I mean that literally — she dispensed hugs and arm-pats to nearly everyone, clasped many hands with both of hers, and seems to have perfected the art of intense eye-contact, the kind that makes people think they are the only person in the room.
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Few can match Brown’s gripping biography, from his upbringing amid alcoholism, poverty and domestic violence, to his education at Tufts and Boston College law school, to his careers in modeling, the military and politics. Yet Warren, a native of Oklahoma, also has a compelling tale that she often telescopes into a few vivid sentences. After her father had a heart attack, she says, her family existed on “the ragged edge” of the middle class. “We lost our car. We almost lost a house,” she told one man at The Student Prince. She later told reporters that she was babysitting by age 9, waiting tables at 13, married at 19, a mother and elementary school teacher at 22.
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As for Republicans who dismiss her as a liberal academic, “I grew up hanging on to the edge of the middle class by my fingernails,” Warren said. “All I can say is I’ve been there. I’ve lived this. My family lived one pink slip, one bad diagnosis away from falling off the economic cliff. Yeah, I’ve got a fancy job at Harvard and I’ve gotta tell you, I’m proud of that job. I worked hard to get there. I wasn’t born at Harvard. I was born to a family that had to work for everything it’s got.”

For those aren’t familiar with the Commonwealth, “America’s first Springfield” is one of those battered industrial towns that’s never fully recovered from the original 1950s “offshoring” of manufacturing jobs to the low-wage Southern States. If Warren can connect with Springfield, the professional hand-wringers can stop worrying about the ‘too elitist’ tag.

Reader Interactions

61Comments

  1. 1.

    BGinCHI

    Are we getting a bleg to send her some dough so that she can beat dumbass Scott Brown?

    I contributed to her at her web site, but it would be nice to get the jackals to get some money going her way.

    http://elizabethwarren.com

    ETA: Yes, by “jackals” I mean you.

  2. 2.

    MikeBoyScout

    The Elizabeth Warren candidacy is the best thing to happen to the Democratic party and the nation since Al Franken.

  3. 3.

    cathyx

    With so many postings I was starting to think this was ABL’s blog. Maybe she should get her own. Oh wait…

  5. 5.

    joes527

    Since this is an open thread, I’m gonna just ignore what Anne wrote.

    Could someone explain to me what is the point of this whole “I’m gonna make a post, but call it an open thread” thing? It seems to have become all the rage around here.

    And why would the blog need another open thread when the top thread was declared open and hadn’t drawn even 100 comments yet?

    Consider this an open comment.

  8. 8.

    MikeBoyScout

    Has anybody following the MS Win 8 Build conference news also got the feeling that MS is attempting to deliver software that can simultaneously provide Hindenburg, Katrina and Spanish Flu Epidemic functionality . . . late?

    Someone should check the water in Redmond. I think it’s been dosed.

  9. 9.

    Ailuridae

    Warren’s candidacy certainly makes me more enthused than most and I agree that it would be worthwhile to raise some cash for her.

    One quibble, though, – didn’t Springfield’s exodus of manufacturing jobs start after the incredibly strangle decision to close the Armory at the height of the Vietnam War? And the city proper hasn’t really lost nearly as many residents as most of the I-90 “Rust Belt” (Pittsfield, Albany, Utica, Syracuse, Buffalo, etc) – it was mostly just white flight to its own version of suburbs.

  11. 11.

    Cat Lady

    She needs to spend a lot of time in the middle of the state, big time – Leominster and Wilbraham and Fitchburg and get all of the the Hillary vote who liked Scott Brown. If she can work outer Middlesex county and Worcester (pronounced Wistah) County, she can get the hard working white people vote away from the pretty boy who’s done nothing for them since he went all big time Washington. I hope she likes sports.

  13. 13.

    Linda Featheringill

    I am very, very pleased to see that it looks as though Elizabeth enjoys campaigning.

    That was a big part of Bill Clinton’s charm. He really enjoyed getting out and mixing it up with folks. He had fun.

  15. 15.

    gogol's wife

    She is really my kind of woman. Her story resonates with me so powerfully. I know just what she’s talking about.

  16. 16.

    Mr Furious

    This is encouraging. She’ll have to be good, because the word “Harvard” is going to be in the first sentence in every bio about her.

  17. 17.

    BDeevDad

    Pat Robertson shows how much he supports the institution of marriage by telling man whose wife has Alzheimer’s that he should divorce her.

    “This is a terribly hard thing,” Mr. Robertson said, clearly struggling to think his way through a wrenching situation. “I hate Alzheimer’s. It is one of the most awful things, because here’s the loved one — this is the woman or man that you have loved for 20, 30, 40 years, and suddenly that person is gone “
    “I know it sounds cruel,” he continued, “but if he’s going to do something, he should divorce her and start all over again, but to make sure she has custodial care, somebody looking after her.”

  19. 19.

    Davis X. Machina

    @MattR: Oops. Link didn’t work. Fixed now.

    They’re the morning guys on WEEI. They did hours and hours of essentially free campaign work for Brown during the special. Their ‘sports talk’ show is only occasionally about, you know, sports.

  20. 20.

    Cat Lady

    @Davis X. Machina:

    D&C isn’t #1 anymore- they got beat by the SportsHub. Toucher and Rich are always making fun of the angry old farts, and got Scott Brown to come on one day to talk about his book just to stick it to them. They do the best hockey talk so if she were really smart she’d learn some hockey lingo and pick her favorite Bruin asap. Mine is Brad Marchand.

  22. 22.

    Ming

    Elizabeth Warren could maybe be President one day. She has the gift of plain speaking and impeccable “fighter for the little guy” cred, AND the policy expertise and brilliance of someone at the very top of their profession. How many Harvard professors would ever talk about their “fancy job at Harvard?” I would LOVE to see her in a debate with Mittens or Palin or Bachmann. This is one to watch.

  23. 23.

    MikeBoyScout

    My favorite Win 8 new feature is the Blue Screen of Death Sad Face.

    MS Customer Support Person: Something really needs to be done in Win 8 with our ‘Blue Screen of Death’ problem.

    MS Lead Designer: Agreed. We need to finally tackle this.

    MS Win 8 Lead Developer: Well, how about we put a sad face on the screen?

    MS Win 8 Junior Developer: Yeah! And we make it a really BIG sad face!

    MS Customer Support Person:

  27. 27.

    Davis X. Machina

    @MattR: I was red-faced from the vanishing link. By the time I noticed it the editing window was closed and then the WP vapours set in.

    Sports talk radio is worth paying some attention to. A lot of people who wouldn’t be caught dead listening to Rush just wind up getting an attenuated version of the same virus listening to, say, Jim Rome.

  29. 29.

    bemused

    I don’t think the media has paid much attention to Warren’s personality and who she is as a person. They’ve been much more interested in covering crazies. It’s going to be interesting watching how msm deals with a down to earth, honest, sane candidate.

  30. 30.

    MattR

    @Davis X. Machina: I am ashamed to admit that I can remember using sports journalism as a positive contrast to the sewer that is the Village. I just wish I could remeber what story was or why I used it as an example so I could figure out if I was naive or if the sports media has gotten worse. (In defense of both my memory and my argument it was probably 7ish years ago)

    @bemused: If I had to predict, they will stub their toes repeatedly trying to portay her as a crazy so they can be back in their comfort zone. After that, who knows.

    @Omnes Omnibus: Good point, though I don’t think ESPN is helping the former’s reputation much.

  32. 32.

    Comrade Mary

    @MikeBoyScout: That makes me want to punch my screen in the face.

    God, I may have to give the boyfriend conniptions and get a Mac next time around. If you’re going to do cute, do cute right.

  39. 39.

    PurpleGirl

    Oaky, geeks… Who remembers BOB? Microsoft’s idea of an OS skin to make computers friendly for home use (circa 1985 or 86?); it was thought up by the-now Ms. Gates.

    I saw it at a kiosk at Comp USA and told my then-boyfriend (who worked for IBM) that it was stupid and wasn’t going to last long at all. I thought it insulted everyone using a computer at home. I don’t remember how soon it was actually pulled from the market.

  40. 40.

    Turgidson

    If Warren can connect with Springfield, the professional hand-wringers can stop worrying about the ‘too elitist’ tag.

    If only Warren actually connecting had anything to do with it, from a narrative perspective. The media will settle right into the “anti-business out of touch intellectual” narrative no matter how much sense she makes to how many people.

    But if she campaigns well enough, she should win anyway.

    edit: @bemused: got there first.

  42. 42.

    Roger Moore

    @PurpleGirl:

    Oaky, geeks… Who remembers BOB? Microsoft’s idea of an OS skin to make computers friendly for home use (circa 1985 or 86?); it was thought up by the-now Ms. Gates.

    Actually Bob, or at least parts of Bob, lasted longer than you think. The same basic technology was recycled into Clippy, the obnoxiously intrusive Microsoft Assistant, who hung around until Office XP (eX Paperclip).

  45. 45.

    Dan

    @Ming: I’d love it. Most of my current favorite politicians are women. They seem to have the balls that the Reids and Obamas don’t have.

    Hope ABL doesn’t go off on my comment about ball-less Americans.

  46. 46.

    ericblair

    @Turgidson:

    But if she campaigns well enough, she should win anyway.

    Hope so, she seems to be a stand-up person and it’s encouraging that she’s campaigning well. I also hope that people haven’t turned her into the latest liberal hero and toss her to the wolves when she starts having to make some deals to get elected or to serve in the Senate.

  47. 47.

    PurpleGirl

    @Roger Moore: Oh ghod, yes. I hated Clippy. And the search dog who “digs” to find your file or whatever.

    @Maude: I think my friend still has the K-pro with 8″ floppy discs. It’s the machine that got him interested in mini/micro/personal computers and eventually to the job with IBM. I’ve often called myself a pseudo-techno-geek because he would only help me with computer problems if I learned enough to ask intelligent questions, i.e. it’s doing x,y,x and I tried a,b,c and it’s still doing whatever. I couldn’t tell him “it won’t turn on”, he wanted me to think through why it might not start.

  50. 50.

    Hal

    @Thoughtcrime:

    Love dlisted. Pure entertainment drivel, but the proprietor Michael K has deceptively clever writing, especially if you get vague pop culture references, or just like some plain old snark.

  51. 51.

    MikeInSewickley

    I have watched her video lecture on the destruction of the middle class several times and am still amazed at her ability to bring extreme clarity to what are current problems are, who is at fault, and what we need to do about it.

    By God, she makes me want to move to MA just to vote for her.

    No matter what happens in 2012, if we can get her in, at least one good thing will come out of the next 13 months of hell.

  52. 52.

    henrythefifth

    Cue the out of context attack ad showing only the “I have a fancy job at Harvard” line over and over.

  55. 55.

    Anne Laurie

    @Amir Khalid: I actually found this last night, and put it up today before I’d had the chance to read today’s comment threads. But I’m glad we agree Elizabeth Warren is great!

  57. 57.

    Arclite

    @joes527: Joe, I think it’s like this: In non-open threads people will yell at you for being off-topic. By making this an open thread WITH an article, it invites commenters to both discuss the article and talk about what ever the fck they want without getting hassled.

    It’s the best of both worlds.

  58. 58.

    Jebediah

    @Jebediah:
    Just kidding. Wilbraham is perfectly lovely, but it’s no Hampden.
    I can’t wait for Warren to mop the floor with Cosmo Brown and make me all proud to be from Massachusetts.

  59. 59.

    Porlock Junior

    @mark:
    “finally, something the pumas can focus their rabid attentions on.”

    And will the cougars be looking deeply into her romantic life? (Probably not)

  61. 61.

    AA+ Bonds

    also pretty lol how the reporter is astounded that a Harvard faculty member knows how to press flesh

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