Elizabeth Warren: The Obama of 2016. Her brand of populism could spell doom for Hillary

National Review ^ | 06/29/2014 | Jonah Goldberg

[SeekAndFind]

Paging Elizabeth Warren: This is your moment.

In 2007, Democrats were delirious with rage about the Iraq war. Hillary Clinton, the “inevitable” presidential front-runner, had voted for the war and refused to apologize for it. Other leading candidates, including Joe Biden, John Edwards, and Chris Dodd, voted for it too. This left a huge opening for a credible antiwar candidate. Barack Obama, inexperienced and underqualified, nonetheless jumped into the vacuum. The rest, as they say, is history.

Today, the issue that obsesses the base of the Democratic party is income inequality. I think that’s foolish. The underlying causes of inequality — miserable economic growth, stagnating wages, poverty, etc. — are vastly more worthy challenges. Though, in fairness, many people actually have those problems in mind when they talk about inequality.

There’s another component to the inequality obsession: populism. People increasingly feel that economic and political elites are enriching themselves, not by making great products or selling valuable services, but by cutting backroom deals and selling influence. This rage is remarkably bipartisan. It is the one theme that loosely unites tea partiers and Wall Street occupiers alike.

Obscure economics professor David Brat toppled House majority leader Eric Cantor in a Virginia primary largely by tapping into that populism, particularly on such issues as immigration and Wall Street bailouts.

Senator Warren owes her left-wing hero status to the Democratic version of this kind of populism. She’s been talking for years about how the well-connected “rig the system” for their own benefit. Now, I find many of Warren’s proposed solutions — more regulation, more taxes, more government, etc. — abhorrent. But, believe it or not, I am not a Democratic-primary voter. Those who are love what Warren is selling.

Which is why Warren is perfectly poised to be the Obama of 2016.

[dennisw]

Go Elizabeth go!!! My favorite fake indian!! Take on Hillary you are from Harvard so are smarter than her!!! Hillary only could get into Wellesley.

[flaglady47]

“the Dem party will NOT win with a woman if a strong, attractive lefty male presents himself as a primary candidate on the Demonrat presidential ticket”

If Hillary doesn’t run, or even if she does, the lefty male who presents himself will need to be a Hispanic, so that the candidate can be a “the first .....” (fill in the blank).

I think it would have to be a Hispanic, because a first Asian, or first Indian just won’t get the slobbering over that a first Hispanic is guaranteed to get from the MSM. So, calling all Dem Hispanics. You’ll beat Hillary and even if she doesn’t run, you’ll be a shoe in for the Presidency. You’ll be a first, you know.