Elizabeth Warren does not want to run for President. She has said so nine million times. She isn’t being coy, she’s sane. No one in their right mind would go through a Presidential campaign whose reward is being shit on by morons for four years.
So I am completely flummoxed why someone name Gary Ritterstein keeps emailing me with “Draft Warren” nonsense. What a spectacular waste of energy and resources. Wouldn’t it be nice if all that organizational power and zeal were spent organizing Democrats at the state level so that we can take back the statehouses and take back the state legislatures and get some blood in the pipeline?
There are plenty of good Democrats out there who want to run and could use all this enthusiasm. Elizabeth Warren just doesn’t happen to be one of them- she is happy doing her thing in the Senate.
MattF
And, FWIW, Warren is definitely having an influence as a non-candidate. Hillary Clinton wants to be seen as her pal, and that’s a good thing.
PsiFighter37
What does Elizabeth Warren think about foreign policy? Everyone loves her economic stuff, but a big part of being president is dealing with folks outside your own borders.
On that basis alone, I think the Senate is a better place for her to be. I have zero clue where she stands on FP.
Baud
@MattF:
Rachel covered that just last night.
Matt McIrvin
@PsiFighter37: Her foreign policy is just not distinctive; as far as I can tell, she’s not terribly interested in the subject and her positions are Generic Democrat. I’ve seen a lot of people assuming she’s some kind of antiwar firebrand just because they think of her as further left.
Villago Delenda Est
@PsiFighter37: And frankly, I don’t care. Her forte is economic policy, and she’s brilliant at it.
AMinNC
You are so right, John. The Reactionary Right has played the long game (starting as far back as the Goldwater defeat) building infrastructure at the state and local levels (not to mention media) that has been incredibly successful. The fact that the Democrats walked back Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy confounds and angers me.
It is going to be up to us, regular citizens, to work with local party and activist groups to get liberals elected, and move the country in a leftward direction that better aligns with citizens’ interests. I’m in North Carolina, and I am thrilled that the Moral Monday movement is a step in that direction. I am seeing MUCH more activism at the state and local levels, trying to win the statehouse back from the Art Pope brigade. And the best part is that people seem to understand that this is a long-term fight. Nobody is giving up if we don’t get our ponies and unicorns tomorrow!
currants
Yep, I want her to stay in the Senate. Kristen Gillibrand too, somewhat to my surprise–from what I can tell she’s a smart and savvy get-things-done person.
evodevo
Yes. I have no idea why these people are doing this, but the last place I want to see one of the very few progressives we have in a Congress controlled by rightwing nutjobs, is wasting time and energy running. She is very effective where she is and doing a great job …oh, wait, has anyone looked into this “movement” to see if it’s some kind of sabotage plot or something? Or is this just “horserace” nonsense from the MSM? And yes, I’d rather see the energy spent on a renewed 50-state policy like we had under Howard Dean – much more productive. Why did they abandon that, again??
AND I’m always appalled when some Dem gets into the Presidency and promptly empties all the governorships and Senate seats of competent people to run his cabinet, and then we lose these same positions to the Red Side.
Raven
Be cool if Cole joined the early morning crew!
Baud
There is a theory that Draft Warren is useful to keep up pressure on Hillary from the left. If that theory was ever viable, it seems like it’s well past its expiration date. I think you’re at the point of needing actual candidates.
balconesfault
I’m convinced that the whole point of most of this “draft Warren” barrage that lands in my e-mailbox daily is to fundraise based on her name. I’m sure lots of otherwise sensible liberals are dutifully clicking and sending $10 or $20 every once in awhile when they get these messages, and for the professional fundraiser ilk that’s a win.
Mustang Bobby
@Raven: True, but given the choice between luxuriating in bed with nice warm doggies or dealing with the likes of me, it’s an easy choice.
PsiFighter37
@Villago Delenda Est: If I were one of those pushing her to be president, I would hope it’s be an important consideration.
dmsilev
@balconesfault: I’m pretty sure you’re right. It’s the functional equivalent of all those “Sign this petition to end $OUTRAGE” emails and ads.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Raven: Hope he doesn’t have to watch Morning Joe to be on the morning crew; he might start drinkin’ again.
OzarkHillbilly
@balconesfault: That’s funny, I never get those e-mails but every time I hear this nonsense I suddenly get the urge to send her money.
henqiguai
@Villago Delenda Est (#5): I’m with VDE
And I also suspect at least some of them are ratfvcking operations. But then again, my wife tells me I’m a deeply cynical b*stard, as well.
Baud
@henqiguai:
So a perfect Juicer then.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: A leavening of sarcasm is necessary as well..
BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: Are you trying to get a rise out of us?
OzarkHillbilly
@BillinGlendaleCA: Moi? Why I never!
Hawes
DRAFT WARREN!!!!
For Senate Majority Leader!!!!
wilfred
I wish she would but even so it is absolutely imperative for her to speak for and from the left to compel 1%Clinton to maintain some semblance of decency. Already the mindset is forming that Clinton will not have to make any concessions to win the nomination and will receive a blank check merely because she’s not as bad as the alternative.
The Clintons are shit. They may be less shit than the Republicans but they are 1%shit through and through. Clinton should be challenged early, hard and continuously by Warren and anyone else who is not interested in promoting the same warmongering, Wall Street Firsters that have afflicted us for so long.
FlipYrWhig
@balconesfault: It’s this. It has nothing to do with Elizabeth Warren qua Elizabeth Warren. It’s a group that wants your email address so that it can boast that it has a lot of email addresses.
Roger Moore
@FlipYrWhig:
That theory would be more plausible if the appeals were popping up on web ads rather than in email boxes. If they’re sending you email, they already have your address and don’t need to harvest it. This is more likely to be stage two of the operation, using the email list to milk people for money.
Sherparick
Rightwingers are not the only ones tempted by political grift This guy is just grifting.
Manyakitty
Not only is she doing an excellent job RIGHT WHERE SHE IS, but I’d like to see her on the Supreme Court some day.
Sherparick
@AMinNC: Its not only Washington centric professional Democrats of the political class (consultants, fund raisers, lobbyists, and national office holders) but the political left is Washington centric and believers in the “Green Hornet/Unicorn” theory of the Presidency as the the way to implement a left wing agenda where 60% of the white people (who as a group still make up 70% of the country) are voting the Loony Toons Theocracy for Dummies and all Money to the Plutocrats Party. For the ultra rich now like the Kochs, Bob Mercer, Sheldon Adelson, etc. their campaign donations are investments. A Republican President and Republican Congress now means the abolition of the Estate Tax (tax savings of 267 billion dollars over ten years to the upper 4,000 at the top of America’s wealth scale) and the abolition of the tax on Capital Gains and dividends (meaning that 90% or more these people will not pay any tax at all on their annual income – meaning the average waitress will be paying more in taxes in absolute dollars then Romney and the non-working rich). These people are different then the rich of the WWII and post war era. They drank in Ayn Rand’s doctrines about how they are the fountainhead of all wealth and that they owe society nothing; rather the other way around, society owes them everything and now they are coming to collect and their instrument is the Modern, Neo-Confederate, Nixon-Reagan-George Wallace Coalition Republican Party who panders to the resentments, fears, and promises of defense of white (particularly white male) privilege to draw the votes; voters united their distaste, dislike, and often open contempt for their Black, Brown, and “hippie” fellow citizens (see business model of Fox News and Ann Coulter). It is a party on the border of Fascist, and it won’t take much to tip it over that ledge.
Kay
@FlipYrWhig:
The only thing that goes against that theory for me is I recognize one of the names on the email I got (which may be different than John’s email).
He was an Obama organizer here. I spent time with him. He took the Obama job straight from working for a union organizing casino workers in FL, which sounded horrific- just really difficult work. He was just earnest as hell. It’s hard for me to believe he’s a grifter.
cmm
It sure would give me a happy to see Warren as Secretary of the Treasury though. Or Commerce. Whichever department gets to make banking rules.
Waldo
I think if you dig deep enough, you’ll find Scott Brown is behind all this.
Cervantes
@Matt McIrvin:
She does take positions here and there. For example, on trade, she has written in opposition to one aspect of the TPP:
Althea
Because Howard Dean.
Davis X. Machina
Who can give me a run-down on what the 50-state Dean thing actually did. versus is claimed to have done.
I was on a county Dem committee that cycle and it was pretty invisible to us… a little tech support, a little money that was used to pay partial salaries of a few campaign bods. Not on a par with what the unions provided, or various advocacy groups.
Bill
While it’s clear that Warren is not getting in this race, can we agree that someone needs to challenge HRC? Preferably from the left.
It can’t be good for the party, or ultimately for her performance in the general, for Clinton to just walk through the primary unopposed.
CONGRATULATIONS!
It’s called “divide and conquer”, John. I’ll bet every single one of these “draft Warren” efforts is being organized and funded by the GOP.
kindness
Grift is grift. Happens on our side too. I have to think anyone who’se mission in life is trying to drum up a Warren for President against her will is in it for the grift, not the prosepect of a Warren presidency.
@wilfred: Yes that is certainly how we can make sure the next president is a Democrat. (snark) See, indignation needs to be balanced against the unimaginable. The unimaginable being Republicans controlling all 3 Federal offices.
J R in WV
In the last election I donated and worked phone bank for a state-wide candidate, who was buried by a classic right-wing candidate. In a once-blue-state.
The phone work was the most depressing thing I have ever done.
Working from a list of registered DEMOCRATIC voters, we got astounding responses from people. One “gentleman” told me he couldn’t vote in the race, because (he quoted, I won’t) the Bible says never put a woman above a man. So I said thanks for your time and hung up.
That was far from the worst. I had to listen to every RWNJ myth out there, FEMA death camps (really!) forced abortions of healthy babies, (with sound effects, these people are certifiable loons who should be locked up for everyone’s safety!) and on and on.
And these were registered Democrats… somehow. I think we are doomed, as our democracy didn’t protect itself from judges appointed for life, money in a flood, and freely allowing outrageous lies from “news media” and I don’t mean just Fox!
Judges making insane decisions should have been impeached the very next day, in the beginning. The whole Senate should unite when something clearly against the plain meaning of the constitution was promulgated by judges. But when it is clearly in favor of one party, those Senators don’t love Democracy as a form of government enough to sacrifice an advantage that crooked judges give them.
Money is not speech, the voting rights act is not obsolete and is necessary to implement the constitutional amendments ending slavery, etc. I’ll stop now as the rage increases as I go on, and that can’t be good for my health.
This is the only thing that makes me glad to be an old. I won’t live to see the end of democracy in America, at least as much as it still survives today. Ignorance is terrifying, when unleashed it could end democracy in 24 hours in an outpouring of blood and shattered glass…
ruemara
@balconesfault: you are correct. And I was sure to say that as I unsubscribed from many mailing lists who only care about getting money and not actually helping where we need it.
ruemara
@Davis X. Machina: it got you conserva dems. People seem to be ignorant of that.
Bobby Thomson
Warren wouldn’t be the first to have her name exploited by grifters looking to build a suckers’ list.
Tripod
@ruemara:
Triumph of the RAHM!
Anne
There was some guy at the farmers market last weekend handing out Warren pamphlets and assuring people “she’s going to run!” Just shook my head and kept walking.
Chris
You would think that “no means no” is a concept liberal activists of all people can get their head around.
And you would be wrong.
Citizen Alan
@evodevo:
AMEN! I still think Obama’s first major tactical mistake was tapping Janet Napolitano for DHS which (a) elevated Jan Brewer and allowed her to run for reelection as an incumbent and (b) prevented Napolitano from running against McCain in 2010, a year in which he was incredibly vulnerable.
Matt McIrvin
@Cervantes: True, though that’s more in her economic wheelhouse.
burnspbesq
@wilfred:
So everything that Clinton has said about income inequality, campaign finance reform, etc. since announcing her candidacy is nothing but lies?
Good to know.
Shell
Well, since she’s a woman, maybe they just think she’s being coy.
kc
So how does this work anyway? Could I form a “Draft John Cole for Senate” group, buy a couple of mailing lists, start soliciting money, and pay myself a nice salary?
I need to get some of this campaign grift, y’all.
lol
@Davis X. Machina:
The 50 state strategy basically comes down to the $100,000 a year Dean sent to each state party to pay for staff salaries.
The parties had full discretion on who to hire and for what positions. They didn’t even need to be new staff.
It was a mess. Good state parties used the money well or at least for staff they already had on hand. Bad state parties hired hacks and cronies. There was no accountability.
To say that this “strategy” was remotely responsibility for the gains in 2006 and 2008 is just moronic. Two or three staff in a state (and remember, oftentimes no *new* staff were even added) is a drop in the bucket for even a single House race’s needs let alone a statewide’s.
Obama’s DNC replaced this with OFA 2.0 which hired staff directly for specific positions with clear goals and accountability. More importantly, OFA 2.0 PUT MORE STAFF ON THE GROUND IN EACH STATE THAN THE 50 STATE STRATEGY EVER DID.
It’s just ignorant bitching and moaning.
dww44
@Matt McIrvin: Yeah, re everyone (particularly on the right) thinking of and painting Warren as some sort of radical leftist, there’s this from yesterday’s post by Simon Johnson at his blog, Baseline Scenario that is worth a read and is worth a wider circulation and reading:
http://baselinescenario.com/2015/04/15/no-more-cheating-restoring-the-rule-of-law-in-financial-markets/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BaselineScenario+%28The+Baseline+Scenario%29
lol
@kc:
It’s pretty easy. You start a PAC, claim you’re going to recruit and train “real” progressives to hold Democrats accountable, pay you and friends all the money, recruit no one and quietly close up shop well before primary season is over.
Amber
Thank you! I am sooo tired of the “let’s harass Warren until she caves to our demands” campaigns. She has stated unequivocally she does not want to run for President. Yet, people continue to ask, continue to demand, and continue to harass her. These people just need to stop! Much easier to pretend you are doing something (i.e. get Warren to run) than to ACTUALLY do something.
RaflW
This, absolutely. Minnesota has had a very strong economic recovery, and our reward was to lose the MN House to the GOP. Go figure.
What are they up to? We have a $2Bn surplus, so of course Human Services and our own state health insurance for poors must be slashed! Because it’s never about economics, its about anti-tax fetishism and tribal warfare.
Minnesota used to be a more sane place (Mme. La Bachmann’s district excepted). But in failing to really organize at the state level, the crazys are back in control of 1/3 of government, and are using the national GOP obstruction and maximalist demands playbook.
FFS indeed.
Marc McKenzie
@evodevo: “AND I’m always appalled when some Dem gets into the Presidency and promptly empties all the governorships and Senate seats of competent people to run his cabinet, and then we lose these same positions to the Red Side.” Okay, then….question–where the hell is the Dem President supposed to get the competent people to run his cabinet?
Or did you not even bother to think this over clearly before spewing this all over the page?
Keith G
@Hawes:
No No No. Shouldn’t happen. Won’t happen. Can’t happen. The things that make her the senator you like would go away if she had to do the things she needs to do to become a majority leader in the United States Senate. It would be a disaster both for her and for the party, but that’s beside the point its just not going to happen.
Chris
@Keith G:
Yep. This is exactly why I’ve always wanted her right where she is. And not in the White House, or another position of equivalent importance.
askew
At this point, the Draft Warren movement is just helping Hillary. Instead of talking up alternative candidates to Hillary, all of that oxygen is just wasted on someone who isn’t going to run. They aren’t furthering any progressive policies at this point. Hillary’s campaign isn’t stupid though. They have figured out that they can just suck up to Warren herself and they don’t actually have to talk about or support actual progressive polices.,
At this rate we’ll have an entire primary of Hillary just talking to pre-screened audiences in vague platitudes and we’ll never hear any concrete policies/positions out of her mouth. Good job Draft Warren Team.
Keith G
@askew: Sorry, but there just simply are no alternatives in the real world to a healthy Clinton candidacy All that can be done is for a qualified person or two to stay in the background with a symbolic campaign and be there just in case something goes terribly wrong in the Clinton campaign.
You may not like that, many people may not like that, but that doesn’t change the fact that this situation we are in this campaign cycle.
Don’t blame Hillary, and don’t blame the press. Any qualified Democratic leader who truly wanted to mount a serious campaign for the nomination of the Democratic Party would have begun doing so two years ago. It would have been subtle and it would have been quiet, but it would have been happening. No one did. Thats on them.
I’m sorry there isn’t a better target for the fair amount of anger you seem to have generated over this condition, but as I mentioned above, the people who are at fault are the people who are not running.
Kerry Reid
Hey, she’s a woman so no doesn’t mean, like, NO. They just need to be PERSUADED, amirite?
Kerry Reid
@Chris: Sorry, should have read all the comments before posting my own in the same vein as yours. But thank you — and of course I agree. It’s starting to get creepy-stalkerish.
Plus, it’s more of the left’s usual “Dreamboat Perfect Pony Says Things That Make Me Tumescent, So All My Energy Goes There!” folly. FFS, instead of pushing for a candidate who IS NOT RUNNING, why not try finding people to run for state legislative races (which don’t require as much cash as a national run) and see if we can start taking back some of the state legislatures that we’ve lost? Elizabeth Warren is NOT the only Dem politician out there. I am sure we can all find MANY in local and state races who are good, qualified — and actually fucking want the job.
In other words: What Cole Said! OTOH — people who keep sending me “draft Warren” emails make it easier for me to decide from which lists I will unsubscribe.
JaneE
If Warren can make the Democratic party move in a progressive direction, that is worth more than 4 years of grief as president. She may be far more effective at getting the country to move in the right (correct) direction as a senator, and a perennially mentioned possible candidate, than as president.
TriassicSands
I agree that Warren isn’t being coy, but this is questionable, at best:
“There are plenty of good Democrats out there…”
That’s one of our biggest problems — there are not plenty of good Democrats running for office. We live in the age of “the lesser evil,” and far too many Democratic voters have to hold their noses when voting. If HRC gets the nomination, I’ll vote for her, but not with any enthusiasm. The only thing that will give me any reason for feeling at all good will be the possibility of electing the first female president, but Clinton would not be the woman I’d choose for that position.
WaterGirl
@FlipYrWhig: email list as political currency.
Davis X. Machina
@TriassicSands:
I know. Mother Jones is dead.