Elizabeth Warren has become increasingly critical of Obama and his economic team. (photo: Timothy D. Easley/AP)
15 December 14
sually
the sitting president is the leader of his or her political party until
there is a new nominee. If the party is not in power then the highest
ranking Congressional leader or the presumptive nominee is seen as the
leader of the party.
So let’s look at the Democrats. President Obama must
be the leader of the party. He even let the party swallow his election
machine when Obama for America became Organizing for America. However,
we saw during the mid-term elections that it was not the case:
Democratic candidates would rather have had Ebola than be seen with the
president.
So of course it must be the presumptive nominee to
replace the president that leads the party, right? No, Hillary Clinton
is not the Democrat with the most sway. She did raise some money and
campaign for Congressional candidates, but she still took second billing
to her husband on the campaign trail. While he still has star power
with some members of the party, Bill Clinton is not the biggest star in
the party.
Harry Reid, you say … really? He had to go out and
create a new leadership position to accommodate the real leader of the
Democratic Party.
She keeps saying she is not running for president, but until she says “I will not run for president,” I’m not buying it.
No politician has done more to raise her national
profile than Senator Elizabeth Warren. No Democrat was more sought after
to be seen with by other Democratic candidates. She raised a lot of
money for other Democrats, something politicians do when building a
national organization to run for president. She released a book
introducing herself to the country.
I seem to remember a book called “The Audacity of
Hope” coming out in 2006 while a first term senator from Illinois was
campaigning for other candidates and even making trips to Iowa. He also
said he wasn’t running for president. Obama’s Hope PAC raised money for
over 100 candidates in 2006, while he “was not” running for president.
Elizabeth Warren has followed the Obama script to a
tee. “A Fighting Chance,” her autobiography, was released this year. She
campaigned for other Democrats across the country, including in Iowa
and New Hampshire. Her PAC “For a Level Playing Field” donated hundreds
of thousands of dollars to other Democrats.
To be fair, her contributions did appear to be
targeted to keeping control of the Senate for Democrats. But the
comparison to the 2014 Senator Warren and the 2006 Senator Obama is
striking. Almost as if it’s a sequel.
In September of 2006, the polling for the Democratic
nomination looked like this: Hillary Clinton 35%, Al Gore 16%, John
Edwards 10%, John Kerry 9%, Joe Biden 5%, Tom Daschle 2%, Mark Warner
2%, Evan Bayh 1%, Wesley Clark 1%, Christopher Dodd 1%, Russ Feingold
1%, Bill Richardson 1%, Tom Vilsack 1%. President Obama wasn’t even
polling at 1%.
After Obama made a few stops in Iowa, one to campaign
for Bruce Braley (Senator Warren stumped for him too) in November, the
polls changed drastically. Hillary Clinton 29%, Barack Obama 22%, Al
Gore 13%, John Edwards 10%, John Kerry 4%.
Fast forward to 2014 and the “not running for
president” freshman senator from Massachusetts is polling at 17%. Only 2
points lower than the eventual winner of the 2008 nomination.
Despite the polls showing Hillary with a comfortable lead, there is evidence of Clinton fatigue.
2000 Democratic Party activists met in Washington DC
this past weekend for Roots Camp 2014, and the Warren buzz could not be
ignored. MoveOn and Ready for Warren had tables and held panels on an
eventual Warren candidacy for president. MoveOn has pledged 1 million
dollars to a campaign to draft her for president. The effort will
include the hiring of staff in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Howard Dean’s organization, Democracy for America, has called for Elizabeth Warren to run for the Oval Office.
300 former Obama campaign staffers have signed an open letter urging the Massachusetts senator to seek higher office.
In the last few months, Warren has been increasingly critical of the president and his economic team. In an October interview in Salon,
the senator said: “They protected Wall Street. Not families who were
losing their homes. Not people who lost their jobs. Not young people who
were struggling to get an education. And it happened over and over and
over.”
Warren’s populist message has struck a chord with the
activist wing of the Democratic Party. In mid-November she accepted a
leadership position in the United States Senate that was created just
for her.
She has taken on the party leadership, fighting
against the budget deal that includes provisions that will weaken
Dodd-Frank and make it easier for corporations to move money offshore
and avoid taxes. The legislation passed, but not by much, and with a
significant number of Democrats dissenting. Without GOP support, the
legislation would not have passed.
Harry Reid did not control the majority of Democratic votes … Warren did.
It remains to be seen if Warren will run this time,
but she has built the machine – all she has to do is turn it on and she
will be the one to beat in 2016.
Scott Galindez was formerly the co-founder of Truthout.
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