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Elizabeth Warren Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 16, 2014 23 Comments
Elizabeth Warren's autobiography is out, and it looks like she is sticking precisely to her campaign script on her false claim to be Cherokee. The title is "A Fighting Chance." The Boston Globe, which has an advance copy (perhaps as a courtesy since it gave Warren so much help in the campaign), summarizes:
She spends several pages describing the family connections that have led her to assert a partial Native American heritage, for which she was criticized by Republicans in her 2012 Senate campaign.... “As a kid, I had learned about my Native American background the same way every kid learns about who they are: from family,” she writes. “I never questioned my family’s stories or asked my parents for proof or documentation. What kid would?” Her ancestry became a major issue during the campaign, and Warren says she was stunned by the attacks – and that she couldn’t provide documentation because her family hadn’t registered any tribal affiliation. “In Oklahoma, that was pretty common,” she writes. “But knowing who you are is one thing, and proving who you are is another.” She reiterated that she did not use her background to gain special treatment. “I never asked for special treatment when I applied to college, to law school, or for jobs,” she writes.
This family dodge has been exposed so many times, detailed at Elizabeth Warren Wiki. The short version is that she never lived as a Native American, but did use the claim to her advantage to get listed as a "Minority Law Teacher" in a directory used as a hiring device in the 1980s. Somehow the editors of The Harvard Women's Law Journal knew about it when Warren was a visiting professor because they listed her as a Woman of Color in Legal Academia. Warren and Harvard never have released her hiring records.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 16, 2014 16 Comments
China Housing Market Bubble Start to Pop as Economy Faces Hard-Landing:
China's property bubble has already started to burst as the country struggles to avoid a hard-landing after the housing market became overheated with soaring prices. China's commercial and residential property sectors are not doing well, especially in the city of Hangzho, which has "become the symbol of a market in distress", according to Forbes. The world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, is closing its Zhaohui store in Hangzhou on April 23 as a part of its overall plan to dump unprofitable locations. The sale of the large store comes as the city has too much supply of commercial properties, according to Forbes. Hangzhou's Grade A office buildings at the end of 2013 had an average occupancy rate of 30%, according to real estate broker Jones Lang LaSalle. In Hangzhou's residential sector, occupancy is weak and prices are declining due to massive overbuilding.
All of this was predicted here, back in 2012 when Elizabeth Warren insisted that we needed to be more like China. And I said, Elizabeth Warren apparently never heard of the Chinese bubble and Stimulus:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 31, 2014 44 Comments
When Elizabeth Warren's fake Cherokee status broke in late April 2012, Warren's campaign went into panic for several days, issuing statements about Warren's ancestry that proved troublesome when compared to the facts. The entire issue was portrayed as a Scott Brown campaign dirty trick, and the Boston Herald -- the city's not-completely-liberal paper -- was attacked. Warren even entertained questions herself initially, reciting tales of her Aunt Bee and high cheekbones which both were laughable and questionable. Not that long after the Cherokee narrative broke, and endangered her campaign, Warren's campaign found a theme -- don't attack my family, I'm not backing away from my parents -- and stuck to it relentlessly. With a mostly sympathetic press in tow, Warren somewhat successfully reframed the issue away from her demeaning usurpation of Native American identity for employment purposes to why people were attacking her family. Warren also went into media shutdown, refusing to answer any questions except when confronted in unavoidable situations. Even then, Warren robotically stuck to the stript of defending her family. Warren avoided one-on-one interviews with anyone other than sycophants until the day before the Massachusetts Democratic state convention, when the Cherokee narrative threatened to derail Warren's attempt to keep her only Democratic rival, Marisa DeFranco, off the ballot. The convention-eve interviews, where Warren of course stuck to script, were enough to quiet party concerns, and DeFranco was kept off the ballot. I don't know if Warren's false narrative ever would have doomed her campaign, considering it was Massachusetts, but the script and press control worked for electoral purposes. Fast forward to Wendy Davis.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 23, 2014 19 Comments
Ever since the story broke that Wendy Davis -- to be charitable to her -- had embellished her personal narrative, many commenters and people on Twitter with whom I interact have suggested Elizabeth Warren as an analogy. As readers know, I have been a harsh critic of Elizabeth Warren for claiming Native American and Cherokee status for employment purposes without basis as she climbed the ladder to Harvard Law School, and then dumping that status as soon as she got tenure. But not all false narratives are created equally. Elizabeth Warren's false narrative was done quietly, and in a manner designed to juice her employment prospects with few people, outside of those responsible for diversity hiring, knowing about it. Warren was not Native American, and the myth that she was 1/32 Cherokee was created by faulty speculation during her campaign, not when she was growing up. At most, some Native American ancestry was a mere family rumor, the term her adult nephew used when searching the family's genealogy. Warren never lived as a Cherokee, never associated with Cherokees, and never publicly touted herself as Cherokee. Instead, Warren used those family rumors of Native American ancestry to get herself put on the short listing of "Minority Law Teachers" in a law professor directory used in the 1980s as a hiring tool by law school administrators. While a Visiting Professor at Harvard, she also somehow managed to get on a list of Women of Color in Legal Academia, although records are hard to find as to how extensively she touted her supposed Native American status (her hiring records never have been released). While there is strong evidence that Warren tried to use her Native American narrative to advance her career, that narrative was not her career.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 06, 2013 30 Comments

As you read the rest of this post, please keep in mind that Elizabeth Warren never has authorized release of her hiring files at Harvard Law School or other employers to see whether her phony Native American and Cherokee status was known at the time...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 04, 2013 25 Comments
I thought she would consider it. I hoped she would run. We needed it as a country, though not for the reasons her supporters think. Via Boston Herald:
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren pledged today she will not run for president in 2016 and will finish her term. The Bay State senior senator has been mentioned in the preliminary talk about the presidential race, but Hillary Clinton has generated the most buzz. "I'm not running for president and I plan to serve out my term," she said at a press conference in Boston with Mayor-elect Marty Walsh. When further pressed, she added: "I pledge to serve out my term. "I am not running for president. I am working as hard as I can to be the best possible senator I can be."
Her putative presidential campaign may be dead, but her story lives on. And oh, what a story it was. Some might call it a Great American Fairy Tale.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 11, 2013 24 Comments

Time Magazine recently ran a cover with a silhouette of Chris Christie with the headline, The Elephant in the Room. It was, of course, a play on Christie's weight without coming right out and saying it. There's also an elephant in Elizabeth Warren's room, but you can't weigh...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 09, 2013 28 Comments

I have been telling you for at least a year that Elizabeth Warren will be a serious challenger to Hillary, if she wants it. You have to realize that Democrats in general, and particularly the liberal base, don't give a hoot about Warren's rip-off of Cherokee...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 27, 2013 20 Comments

David Frum at The Daily Beast, and Alex Pareene at Salon.com, each write about Elizabeth Warren and Ted Cruz, and 2016. Frum sees a Warren run ending in defeat at the hands of the Clinton machine, How Ted Cruz Can Win in 2016: Democrats liked Hillary personally. But...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 22, 2013 26 Comments
Greg Pollowitz at National Review asked, Which Is Worse: ‘High Cheekbones’ or ‘Redskins’?
A few things are bothering me about Bob Costas calling the term “Redskins” a slur on Sunday night. One, Democrats had absolutely no issue when then senate candidate Elizabeth Warren justified her Native American heritage with her “high cheekbones.” That’s the same as me saying, “Can’t you see I’m half-Jewish from the size of my nose?” If it was anybody but liberal-darling Warren, there would be outrage at her saying such a thing. But since Democrats have tacitly endorsed “high cheekbones” as politically acceptable, I vote to rename the Redskins “The High Cheekbones.” The song even works, “Hail to the Cheekbones! Hail Victory!”
For those of you who don't remember, Elizabeth Warren supposedly (doubtfully) relied on "family lore" to justify checking the Native American box in order to get herself put on a short list of "Minority Law Teachers" and "Women of Color in Legal Academia" as she was climbing the law school ladder towards Harvard Law School.  Among those stories (now cast in doubt) was about her Aunt Bea and high cheekboned ancestors:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 20, 2013 13 Comments

Been away all week at a conference in Orlando. Thanks to Mandy and other contributors for covering. Remember, there may be a partial shutdown of LI on Monday morning, for "maintenance." What did I miss? Update: The Washington Warrens! ...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 08, 2013 39 Comments

You better at least get ready. There's a buzz being fed. Warren gave a speech to the AFL-CIO today, and the "draft Warren" talk is starting. https://twitter.com/greenhousenyt/status/376851270759243776 https://twitter.com/mikeconrad1/status/376851928593870848 https://twitter.com/Organize20/status/376852557068386304 There is no bigger or better demagogue in American politics. No one is as keyed into the politics of...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 15, 2013 52 Comments

Larry Sabato came out with his rankings of presidential contenders today. I was going to write about the downgrade of Marco Rubio, but that's old news. More interesting is the rankings of Democrats. There is no "First Tier" other than Hillary. The drop from Hillary to Joe...

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