Strickland33
Well-known member
Those are the wrong questions in response to my post. Keep in mind I said potential. Also, there's something about what each is doing, but it's more about where each stands with the public.
The big thing is plenty of people have already made up their minds about Warren. Much of that has been colored by how Republicans have portrayed her. I think if she had run in 2016, she could have told her own story more instead of the Republicans telling it for her. So many people just don't like her and she has a very difficult task getting them to like her. She's starting from a deficit. She's working her way out of it with policy and that's fine because that's her brand. I think she's doing a good job telling her story and I think it will pay off with progressives. Not sure if it will work on the right.
Pete is trying to work the values angle. He understands that policy specifics are important, but voters don't like politicians for their policies. People like policies if they like the politician, especially people who aren't that political. That why Trump remains popular with some voters despite doing exactly what he said he wasn't going to do on the campaign trail.
Pete is a blank slate. People generally like him. Republicans are struggling trying to figure out how to portray him. They're sticking with the usual "he's too liberal" argument. He is selling people on himself and explaining how he (and the Democrats) share their values. That's why his policies are organized under freedom, security, and democracy. Not sure if it's going to work but it's a step in the right direction.
That’s why I was wondering. I don’t think he’s actually accomplished it and until he tries I think it’s a bit early to say that he can do what pretty much nobody since LBJ has been able to accomplish. Obama talked the talk, but never really walked the walk when it came to the kinds of broad base progressivism advocated by Warren, Gillibrand, and Sanders (I’m still skeptical of Harris - where did she go, anyway???). Whether you attribute that to Obama’s ideology or Congress is up to you. Clinton never gave a shit about progressivism, but he also didn’t run as a progressive. Carter was an abject failure at most aspects of his job. It’s a tough task and it’ll only get tougher the deeper we get into the Information Age.