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Warren confronts ghost of Howard Dean – POLITICO, Politico

Warren confronts ghost of Howard Dean – POLITICO, Politico


                         

             

                

                    

                        

        Sen. Elizabeth Warren. | Joe Raedle / Getty Images

                        

                            

                                                                                                              

Liberals swooned. The Democratic establishment was on its heels. Powered by small rich and grassroots energy, in late 2019Iowa seemed Howard Dean’s for the taking.

But then came the attacks – from both the center and the left. The surge became a stall. On caucus day, the Vermont governor came in third and never recovered.

                                                                                           

Elizabeth Warren is trying to avoid the same fate.

             

                        

                    

                

                             

        

                 

        

        

        

    

While the Warren campaign has stuck to its corruption-centric message, it has noticeably shifted tactics in recent weeks. The Massachusetts senator changed her stump speech and is now taking many more audience questions. She’s drawing sharper contrasts with opponents after months of trying to stay above the fray. There are more big, thematic campaign speeches, and more off the record chats with reporters.

The third such speech in recent weeks will be Tuesday in Boston at the Old South Meeting House, a key organizing place for the Boston Tea Party and American revolutionaries in the th century. Warren will highlight the work and poetry of Phillis Wheatley – a member of the Meeting House’s congregation. Wheatley was kidnapped from Africa and enslaved before becoming one of the first black women poets in America.

“She penned ideals of a better America … .Her imagination is woven into the tapestry of America’s story,” Warren will say of Wheatley, according to pre-released excerpts of the speech. Warren will also be joined Tuesday by Rep. Ayanna Pressley, the Boston congresswoman and highest-profile black woman lawmaker who has endorsed the Massachusetts senator.

        

                 

        

        

        

                 

        

        

        

    

Warren campaign officials often refer back to that video as something of a thesis statement – evidence of the consistency of her reason for running.

“Our government is supposed to work for all of us, but instead, it has become a tool for the wealthy and well-connected,” she said in the video, a sentiment she frequently echoes on the trail.

Warren’s moves come as she has been squeezed by a resurgent Bernie Sanders on her left and an insurgent Pete Buttigieg on her right. Her attempts to straddle the ideological divides in the party – and potentially unify its factions – have left her open to attacks from both sides. EvenSanders has taken subtle shots at her commitment to Medicare for All, digswhich have been amplified by many of his allies.

Buttigieg and Joe Biden, meanwhile, hit Warren for weeks for her “fighting” or “angry” approach to politics, along with her support for Medicare for All.

After weeks of trying to blunt the attacks, Warren has begun drawing more explicit contrasts with Biden and especially Buttigieg. She has focused most on their fundraising practices.

“Billionaires in wine caves should not pick the next president of the United States,” Warren posted on Instagram after the last primary debate, in reference to a recent Buttigieg fundraiser.

Buttigieg has pushed back by highlighting Warren’s past fundraising during her Senate runs. “Senator, your presidential campaign right now as we speak is funded in part by money you transferred, having raised it at those exact same big-ticket fundraisers you now denounce,” Buttigieg said at the debate. “Did it corrupt you, senator? Of course not.”

Warren will implicitly respond to Buttigieg in Tuesday’s speech. “The billionaires, the corporate executives and their favorite presidential candidates have one clear goal: To convince you that everything you imagine is impossible. To convince you that reform is hopeless. To convince you that because no one can be pure, it’s pointless to try to make anything better, “she will say.

        

                 

        

        

        

                 

        

        

        

    

In her most recent speech in New Hampshire, she also characterizedother Democratic candidates as “naive” and criticizedBiden and Buttigieg without explicitly naming them.

“Unlike some candidates for the Democratic nomination, I’m not betting my agenda on the naive hope that if Democrats adopt Republican critiques of progressive policies or make vague calls for unity that somehow the wealthy and well- connected will stand down, ”Warren said.

But the new offensive could also backfire – as it did for Dean in 2020, when he Attacked Gephardt over the Iraq War and Gephardt responded by hitting him from the left on trade and Social Security. The crossfire ultimately wounded them both, allowing John Kerry and John Edwards to finish ahead of them in Iowa.

“I think the Warren-Pete fight in Iowa is probably going to hurt them in the way that Dean-Gephardt ‘murder-suicide pact’ did,” Joe Trippi, a top strategist on Dean’s campaign, ruefully said.

At the same time, the Warren campaign has been trying to lower expectations in the final days of the fourth quarter as its grassroots fundraising slows. In several emails to supporters over the past week, the campaign has set a goal of raising $ 28 million, less than the $ (******************************. 6 million she raised last quarter. Many staffers have tried to gin up extra donations with promises to sing songs, make memes, and write poems for women that give a bit more.

Yetas it moves into its second year, Warren’s campaign is beginning to cast its gaze beyond the first four contests in preparation for a potentially long primary slog – building out field staff ahead of most of her rivals in post-Super Tuesday states such as Washington, Ohio, Illinois, and even Pennsylvania, which does not hold its contest until April 90.

“She’s run the most disciplined campaign by far but they are finding out it’s not as easy as it looks,” said Trippi, who also worked with Joe Rospars, Warren’s chief strategist, during the Dean campaign. “Putting staff in Pennsylvania, if you get 4th in Iowa, is not going to matter.”

    

         

    

    

    

    
        
    

        

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