Elizabeth Warren definitely is surging.
She took a campaign left for dead early in the year after the DNA debacle and her Native American problem, and turned it around on the back of rolling out aggressive plans every few days to keep herself in the news cycle. It took a while, but being the center of news coverage for months appears to be paying off.
Those plans are both a primary election benefit, and a general election curse. The promise to eliminate private health insurance and to tax guns and ammunition into oblivion play well in a Democratic primary, but could be disastrous in a general election. So too Warren’s insistance — throughout her political career — that we are a nation of victims is a hard sell in a time of historically low unemployment.
Warren has perfected the politics of envy, but that may not set her up as a viable general election candidate.
The NY Times is taking note of that problem, Many Democrats Love Elizabeth Warren. They Also Worry About Her:
Yet few candidates also inspire as much worry among these voters as Ms. Warren does.Even as she demonstrates why she is a leading candidate for the party’s nomination, Ms. Warren is facing persistent questions and doubts about whether she would be able to defeat President Trump in the general election. The concerns, including from her admirers, reflect the head-versus-heart debate shaping a Democratic contest increasingly being fought over the meaning of electability and how to take on Mr. Trump….These Democrats worry that her uncompromising liberalism would alienate moderates in battleground states who are otherwise willing to oppose the president….
The problem with running left in the primaries is well known. But the Times focuses on the lingering concerns about Warren’s Native American problem from an electoral standpoint:
Many fear Ms. Warren’s past claims of Native American ancestry would allow Mr. Trump to drown out her policy message with his attacks and slurs against her….
But Ms. Warren also demonstrated that she was still uncertain about how to address Mr. Trump’s taunts about the Native American heritage she once claimed. Her attempt to prove that ancestry with a DNA test last year drew fierce criticism from the right and left as well as some Native American groups; she stood by the DNA test for months, then apologized for it and the claims.
Having been told by advisers to generally avoid engaging on the issue, Ms. Warren struggled in the interview to articulate an answer about whether she would respond to Mr. Trump head-on when he uses his frequent slur for her, “Pocahontas,” or pivot to a more policy-centered rebuttal.“My job is not to be drawn off into that,” she said….
Many Democrats like Ms. Warren — some wait for an hour to take pictures with her — and she continues to gain supporters. But even among some of her enthusiasts, the questions about her vulnerabilities linger.
In Council Bluffs, waiting to see Ms. Warren take the stage, Herb Christensen was succinct about why he liked her — and why he worried about her as the nominee.
“My god, she’s smart,” he said. “Pocahontas, that’s the only thing.”
None of the other Democrat candidates have hit Warren on her Native American or corporate representation problems, or anything else. She’s had a free ride. As the field winnows, that could change, and I easily could see Kamala Harris doing to Warren what she did to Biden, or Tulsi Gabbard doing to Warren what she did to Harris.
Warren already has admitted there could be more shoes to drop on her Native American deception. That’s a problem if you are a Democrat who, above all else, wants to defeat Trump.
[Featured Image: The Breakfast Club]
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