In short, the Harvard professor and erstwhile nominee for head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will be seeking to challenge Scott Brown (or a Republican to be named later if Brown gets Teabagged) for his Senate seat in the 2012 election. I have to think that her advocacy in favor of consumers against banks and “Wall Street” will be a huge plus for her. She has shown (at least in Senate hearings) a remarkable ability to keep her cool, and I really look forward to seeing any debates that may come between her and Brown (or whoever).
I don’t live in Massachusetts, and I’m not a registered Democrat, but I’ll be watching this election with interest. I really like Warren, and I don’t think the Senate would be any worse off for having a consumer advocate with some actual knowledge of the financial world in its ranks.
If I were American, I’d vote Warren for any position she ran for, just because I like her so damn much and have ever since that Frontline episode about credit cards.
She is flawed. She cares about consumer rights and believes in consumer protection.
In modern right wing America, anything that takes a potential penny away from a corporation or bank is wrong. They love us .
Unfortunately, she lives in Massachusetts, and would still be better. I saw her speak at my son-in-law’s law school graduation (she graduated from Rutgers Law School) and she was great. She also has a great story - she was not exactly born to wealth.
My parents and brothers live in MA. There’s no way I’d ever convince my Fox-watching parents to vote for a Democrat, but I can try to work on my brothers who I think don’t normally vote.
Warren was within single digits of Brown in the polls well before announcing. Brown now has to run on his record, and it’s not a strength, to say it mildly. He’s an empty barn coat, except, that is, when he goes off to Afghanistan to be a National Guard lawyer in his telegenic cammies.
With Warren getting media play and name rec, a platform than resonates, and an opponent who does not exude a better image than her, this will be a good one.
I’m very excited that Warren has announced and is running. I will definitely be donating time to her campaign.
Scott Brown isn’t the worst Republican by any means and has been very smart to remain quiet lately. He has a good chance against anyone the Democrats could put up.
Elizabeth Warren is probably the best candidate they have to put up against Brown but she is by no means a sure thing. It will be a tough race.
Elizabeth Warren may be a well known name around here and among those that closely follow politics but that’s by no means a majority of voters. Her name recognition among MA voters at the highest I’ve seen is 15%. That means she is barely even defined. Scott Brown won his seat by defining Martha Coakley early in the campaign and she lacked the funding and political skill to overcome that. Brown has been fundraising since he got elected, his campaigns going to be writing up a Warren that is unpalatable to voters.
Warren is also going to have difficulties because of political realities. To come out strong and draw popular support she would be better off campaigning against Obama’s failure to fight for her and her reforms. She probably won’t do that and in the long run it would hurt her party. She’s stuck trying to argue she’ll fight for real reform in the senate without offending the Democratic party she desperately needs to fund her.
The narrative the Republicans have been successfully selling the the country is regulation is bad. Warren as someone who has been very vocal in her support of regulation has to come in and make the case it’s needed and she’s the one that can do it. She would have had a hell of an easier time of this if Obama made that argument to the country when he was trying to seat her as head of the financial regulatory comity.
I really wish the rest of the Democratic party had the fight Warren has in her.
Wow. Apparently in her first day on the campaign trail she managed to hit up South Boston, Framingham, Springfield, Worcester, and New Bedford, and was on Rachel Maddow in the evening. I think that’s more campaigning than Martha Coakley did in her whole race. I’m excited for this race.