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You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Election 2020 Open Thread: Hometown Welcome for Warren

Election 2020 Open Thread: Hometown Welcome for Warren

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This is significant, because traditionally the old-guard Democratic Party in our Peoples’ Republic has been very misogynistic. There’s a long tradition where only extremely ‘go along to get along’ female candidates are given the chance to rise in the party… and then when they fail to catch fire, the old bhoys in the legislature and their media enablers announce it proves Massachusetts voters just aren’t ready to vote for some broad.

These tweets are from the official convention for professional MA Democrats, and clearly the misogynists have been overpowered, at least for now.

Traditionally, Massholes have not exactly been receptive to candidates of color, either — and I doubt it’s a coincidence when Warren reminds the Official Party Leaders how much *that* dynamic is changing, as well:


Reader Interactions

104Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    I suspect what’s being covered now as “cute” may turn out to be “brilliant

    Has anyone describes her selfie line in a condescending way like that, or is this one of those fake foils social media likes to play up?

  3. 3.

    NotMax

    @Baud

    That some Breitbartians haven’t yet stood in the line to later claim she grabbed and squeezed their butts is somewhat surprising.

  4. 4.

    TS (the original)

    Just to mention – the only candidates with pictures on the front page of wapo at the minute are Sanders and Biden. The media wants one of these two to win because it is the ONLY way trump has a chance – old man against old man (regardless that polls may say differently).

  5. 5.

    Ruckus

    @Baud:
    Think about it from the other direction. She’s the 3rd oldest in the candidate lineup and she doing an absolutely current thing – selfies. Not just a handshake or a picture, a selfie. Olds don’t do this, most of the time we don’t even think about it. She’s doing it, spending more time with the selfie line than in any speech. She’s identifying with the voters in a way that no one else ever has, at least in a presidential election. Mom got to shake Bill Clinton’s hand at some time back in the 90s, she never forgot that. People get to take home a picture of themselves with their candidate. They aren’t going to forget that.

  10. 10.

    arrieve

    I stood in the selfie line last weekend at the New Hampshire convention and I will treasure the picture forever — and I am not usually someone who gets starstruck. Like most of us, I will support any Democrat — and I was favorably impressed by many of the candidates at the convention — Harris and Buttigieg weren’t a surprise, but I really liked Booker and Klobuchar as well, which I didn’t expect. All of them are so smart and thoughtful I would be thrilled to support them, and we’re lucky to have so many good choices.

    But I was amazed at the level of enthusiasm for Warren — like a rock star-level two minute standing ovation. If she can continue to generate that kind of energy I don’t see how anyone can beat her.

  11. 11.

    Mary G

    She’s not dolng it anymore, but the description of how she managed her wardrobe while still a Senator in last year’s longread by Rebecca Traister in NY Mag completely charmed me:

    After we talk on her sun porch, Warren has to rush to that big outdoor town hall in Natick. But before she goes, she has an alteration to make. She’s ordered a bunch of gauzy open-front cardigans to put over her uniform of black pants and a black tank top. They cost about $13 each, she says, but they’re too long, hit her too far down the thigh, so she’s planning to cut the bottom off the aqua one she’s about to wear.

    I point out that if she just chops it with scissors, the knit will come unraveled. She shoots me a slightly withering look: “Well of course it will unravel, but it will just roll up at the bottom.” Fair enough, and as I stand watching this operation, I mention that I’ve just come from a weekend in Maine, where I’d turned away from the news for a couple of days and briefly felt the relief of disengagement. Warren cuts the sweater methodically, using the first scrap to measure how much to take off all around.

    Warren sat close to Trump at his inauguration, to “burn the experience into [her] eyeballs.”
    “You know what I love to do?” she offers. “I love to go to Target with Amelia and just spend the day there.” Her daughter, Amelia, is the mother of Octavia and Warren’s two younger grandchildren; she lives in L.A. “We just wander around in there, look at the patio furniture, the pajama section. It’s like six hours of tuning out.” You spend six hours at Target? asks a staffer who’s there to accompany us to Natick. Warren looks up, surprised. “Well, not just at Target. We go to BJ’s; we each have things we like to eat there. Then I get the socks I like at Macy’s.” Warren’s voice gets softer. She’s talking mostly to the sweater now. “It’s just a few hours, six hours that I don’t have to think about Mitch McConnell. That’s all I need.”

    That is such a mom thing to do, buy a cheap sweater and chop off the bottom. The whole piece is well worth reading if you missed it. Can’t imagine Liz Cheney wearing that. Also, too, I know a lot of people here look down their noses at chain restaurants, but I love BJ’s too. She is so freaking relatable.

  12. 12.

    raven

    @schrodingers_cat: It’s too soon to tell. I’m just kind of fooling around right now with two epic events coming up in the next 10 days or so. We went on the draconian South Beach Diet the day after I stopped working and, while I’ve lost significant weight, it sort of sucks the joy out of life! I’m sure 5 days in Louisiana will cure that! Did you see my question about Rajmohan Gandhi this morning?

  16. 16.

    karensky

    Annie Laurie, hi, I grew up on Gardner, MA and was working later in Connecticut when I was in Boson at a region wide meeting at the end of the ‘70s. I had never seen an uglier building that the Boston City Hall and I wanted to go in and look around. One of my lunch buddies who was from Somerville said since I had pants on and not a skirt they wouldn’t let me in. I thought that she was kidding and then I was horrified.

    I am so lucky to be around to see Denator Warren kicking ass. Thanks for that post. I am all in for Warren!

  17. 17.

    Yarrow

    @Mary G: There were complaints here about Warren’s clothing choices after the debate. I love that she has a sort of “uniform.” It makes her life easier, she’s comfortable in it and it works for her. Good. I remember Barack Obama saying that he had a bunch of the same suits because it meant he didn’t have to decide what to wear. Decision fatigue is a real thing and taking one decision away (clothes) helps cut down on that.

  18. 18.

    Baud

    @Ruckus:

    I’m not criticizing what she’s doing. But that tweet made it sound like there were people looking down on it, and I have never come across that.

  24. 24.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Baud: I’ve mostly seen people make fun of her for calling it a selfie line when for the most part it is actually a line where you get your picture taken together by a third party, which politicians have been doing for a long time and we have a name for already!

  36. 36.

    johnnybuck

    @TS (the original): they’re leading in the polls, what do you expect them to do? Ignore them? Fer fucks sake every other article about Biden is about either something he mangled in speech, or his weak-ass debate performance, or what a weak ass frontrunner he is. Or maybe we’re reading different versions of the WAPO. The one thing I don’t see is any indication that they’re propping him up.

  37. 37.

    Starfish

    @NotMax: The local Bernie fanatics are so exhausting and offensive. They are holding ALL the 2016 grudges that I do not care about. Someone liked a Sarah Silverman tweet and shared it to a local pro-Warren group, and the Berners are all complaining about how Silverman wronged him in 2016. I told them that I did not realize the pro-Warren group was the petty grievances against minor celebrities group, and someone said that their experience with the way Silverman treated Sanders was like PTSD. I just cannot with these offensive self-absorbed fools.

  39. 39.

    Ruckus

    @Mary G:

    She is so freaking relatable.

    That is my point above, she relates in a way that almost any one gets, sees and understands immediately.

  41. 41.

    Ruckus

    @Baud:
    Absolutely.
    I didn’t take it as negative, just a point. And it’s a good one because she is so, as Mary G says, relatable. And probably even far more to most women than men.

  42. 42.

    Mary G

    @Yarrow: Amy K wore a dark suit to the first debate, So did everyone else except Warren, who in her red jacket in the middle looked like a Broadway lead in front of the chorus. Last week Amy wore a copy of Warren’s black top and pants, with a bright green jacket. Imitation, flattery, etc.

  43. 43.

    Starfish

    @Baud: I want to passive-aggressively leave zucchini on their porches, but I did not grow zucchini this year. I am not actually that great at growing vegetables. The cherry tomatoes did really well though.

  49. 49.

    Jay

    “Ramirez’s legal team gave the F.B.I. a list of at least 25 individuals who may have had corroborating evidence. But the FBI interviewed none of them, though we learned many of these potential witnesses tried in vain to reach the F.B.I. on their own.” https://t.co/r87o8VEkoc— Katie Phang (@KatiePhang) September 14, 2019

  52. 52.

    Major Major Major Major

    @waratah:

    “When even this President and even (Senate Majority Leader) Mitch McConnell are at least pretending to be open to reforms, we know that we have a moment on our hands,” Buttigieg said. “Let’s make the most of it and get these things done.”

    O’Rourke fired back at Buttigieg on Twitter and wrote, “Leaving millions of weapons of war on the streets because Trump and McConnell are ‘at least pretending to be open to reforms’?”

    “That calculation and fear is what got us here in the first place,” he continued. “Let’s have the courage to say what we believe and fight for it.”

    Awesome, they’re both wrong

  53. 53.

    RAVEN

    Since the football haters run deep here I thought I’d include this tidbit about Georgia fans and the Arkansas State coach.

    Coach Blake Anderson and Arkansas State left Georgia with a loss, but Anderson will never forget all those Georgia fans who turned out in pink to honor his wife, Wendy, who died of breast cancer last month. “It has been a really emotional week,” Anderson said after the Red Wolves were routed by the No. 3 Bulldogs 55-0. “I just want to say publicly: one of the classiest moves I’ve ever seen. It’s hard to truly prepare for something like that.” His players were equally moved by the gesture, which began with a plea on social media and quickly spread. “I’ll be a Georgia fan the rest of my life,” Arkansas State center Jacob Still said.

  55. 55.

    glory b

    I think I’d still like an explanation from her about why she stayed in the Republican party long after the southern strategy was exposed. Cheering for a few black female elected officials doesn’t cut it.

    I also want (saying this again) her to explain why and how she believes (if she still does) that the DNC rigged the primary for Hillary. I feel like she hand-waved away all of the hard work AA women put into her campaign.

  57. 57.

    ruemara

    @glory b: She’s also going to have to deal with her appearing/disappearing Native Heritage. And since she’s also of the mindset that Obama didn’t help people economically, so that’s why they went for Trump, her wonkism is not going to appeal to those folks. So, that’s going to be interesting if she earns the nom.

  58. 58.

    Baud

    @glory b:

    It took me a long time to get over the rigged primary stuff, but she only said it once in response to a question, and to my knowledge, has never repeated it. Since she’s running such a strong campaign, I decided to give her a second chance.

  59. 59.

    germy

    When he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee last year, Kavanaugh denied all allegations of impropriety .

    Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., said after the new report that “Brett Kavanaugh lied to the U.S. Senate and most importantly to the American people.” She tweeted: “He must be impeached.”

    A 2020 rival, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, tweeted that “Confirmation is not exoneration, and these newest revelations are disturbing. Like the man who appointed him, Kavanaugh should be impeached.”

    Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke asserted in a tweeted, “We know he lied under oath. He should be impeached.” He accused the GOP-run Senate of forcing the FBI “to rush its investigation to save his nomination.”

    Their comments followed similar ones from Julian Castro, a former U.S. housing secretary, on Saturday night. “It’s more clear than ever that Brett Kavanaugh lied under oath,” he tweeted. “He should be impeached and Congress should review the failure of the Department of Justice to properly investigate the matter.”

    Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont didn’t refer to impeachment by name in a tweet Sunday, but said he would “support any appropriate constitutional mechanism” to hold Kavanaugh “accountable.”

    https://wnyt.com/politics/dem-presidential-candidates-call-for-kavanaughs-impeachment/5493235/

  60. 60.

    Yarrow

    I really like Elizabeth Warren. Sure, she’s got some issues, but all the candidates do. No one is perfect. I still think her wonkiness is better suited to the Senate.

  61. 61.

    PsiFighter37

    @JPL: Much better! We had a night nurse interview today, and aside from scolding us a bit about diaper rash (that is our biggest failure to date, it seems), the best takeaway was that we were being too lenient in swaddling. She hates it and loves using her arms and legs to kick, but with a pacifier in while we do it, she is much more abiding, and the 3 times we have done a much tighter swaddle, she has passed out like a light shortly thereafter. It’s a bit of a luxury, but since I am going back to work after next week, and my wife has her own high-powered job to go back to in a few months, we do need to get it right and indulge in what feels a little bit like a luxury.

  62. 62.

    HumboldtBlue

    the old bhoys

    A Hoops fan eh?

    Like a good Saturday at the Old Firm?

    Have a go at the ‘Gers?

    I’m with ya, as Celtic sing “you’ll never walk alone.”

  64. 64.

    JWR

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Pete Buttigieg calls for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh to resign or be impeached: “Kavanaugh should resign and if he doesn’t, the House should impeach him.”

    And if that doesn’t work, expand the SC to at the very least 11 seats, even though 13-15 would be more to my liking. (eta and do some court packing of our own.)

    PS to say that I’ve not really thought this court expansion thing out, but damn, as it stands now, they’re killing us!

  66. 66.

    JPL

    @PsiFighter37: I’m pleased to hear that. My son and his wife both work and that’s why they bought the Snoo.
    He’s fortunate that the company he works for allowed him to take whatever time was necessary, and hers a major diy store gives 3 months, but would have extended it because of her C-section if necessary. Enjoy the baby because you will be surprised how fast they develop in the early days.

  70. 70.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Amir Khalid:

    It’s a no-brainer for me, Celtic all the way (historical/cultural/socialist reasons). I’m just glad I don’t have to regularly watch SPL.

  72. 72.

    Ruviana

    @raven: That diet is terrible! It works, really well but it can drive you insane. A colleague of mine said it made him want to mug someone for an English muffin.

  73. 73.

    Yarrow

    @JWR: Because the Parliament prorogation case in the UK is heading to their Supreme Court I’ve learned they have 12 judges (well, a President and Deputy President and 10 Justices) but not all of them get used on every case. I don’t know how they select which ones hear cases.

  74. 74.

    Raven

    @Ruviana: I heard that! The worst part is that I’ve lost a good bit more than she has (we knew that was the deal) and it makes it harder.

    eta We are now eating the spectacular ricotta dessert!

  75. 75.

    TS (the original)

    @debbie: Just plain weird – or else they really hate the thought of the US actually having a government for all of the people.

  78. 78.

    Mohagan

    @Ruckus: and of course they’ll post the selfie on social media so SPW gets more good publicity. It’s brilliant and seems so obvious now that she’s doing it. Why don’t the other candidates? I guess it takes too.much time and energy when they have to make those endless phone calls to big donors.

  80. 80.

    Ruckus

    @raven:
    I’m not strictly on a South Beach diet but am close to that. I have lost weight and it stays off as long as I stay on it. I don’t mind it much but then I have no sense of smell and my sense of taste is not much better. Which is normal as your sense of smell gives a lot of information to what we assume is the sense of taste. It does take a bit of transition and acceptance. Less than I thought it would.

  82. 82.

    TS (the original)

    @johnnybuck: The headlines are ALL positive. Whether the article is or not – who knows, I look at the headlines & in most instances leave.

    And the reason they are leading – coverage and name recognition.

  86. 86.

    Kirk Spencer

    @Mohagan: Don’t even need the last snide tag.

    It takes a lot of energy, and it takes a lot of time, and on a campaign trail both are in terribly short supply.

    I’m willing to wager all the other candidates’ managers were scoffing at the use of the lines at every single event. Sure, you do them at the big ones, but you control the access in some way even then because time and energy and oh god help us what about that fan with contagious disease number 5 who just had to get this once in a lifetime chance.

    Honestly, I’m still amazed at her doing this successfully. Not that it isn’t brilliant, but if you’d asked me if any candidate /could/ do it to this degree I’d have said no.

  87. 87.

    Ruckus

    @Mohagan:
    As someone up thread reminded us there have been rope lines for ever, but selfies with you phone, that’s relatively brand new. It throws a whole new context of being part of the people out there and she does it till there is no one left. That is a big deal from the standpoint of candidates rushing to the next site. This makes it a lot more personal and that will probably make a huge difference in the long run. No more suits and ties, standing behind a barrier spending 4 seconds with each person. It has just become a more personal day with someone who could be president. You have a picture on your phone, you carry that with you every where, every day. You can show it and talk about it to your friends, compare even.
    It’s brilliant that she’s the first to do this and in a manner that shows her personality right up in your face. Her age says one thing to someone like me, her actions say another.

  88. 88.

    Yarrow

    @raven: It makes me feel awful. I did South Beach and know that ricotta dessert. I had to buy Splenda to make it work. Boy did my stomach hurt.

    I’ve done South Beach and other low carb things. I’m okay for about three months and then I start to feel bad. Worst sinus problems I’ve ever had doing it. Went away when I added carbs back in. I have a friend who swears by no carb/keto type diet. She’s lost a lot of weight and kept it off for like five years now. She loves it.

  90. 90.

    Major Major Major Major

    @TS (the original):

    the only candidates with pictures on the front page of wapo at the minute are Sanders and Biden. The media wants one of these two to win because it is the ONLY way trump has a chance – old man against old man (regardless that polls may say differently).

    And now they don’t have pictures of any candidates, it’s not a very good metric.

  91. 91.

    Ruckus

    @Yarrow:
    I think that it works if you are extremely careful to get enough of the right carbs. You have to or you will feel sluggish and tired all the time. It’s like everything else, anything over done can kill you eventually, anything underdone isn’t good either. It’s always the over and under that gets you in the end. Also I didn’t just dive into it full bore. So it takes longer to lose the weight but it also doesn’t feel so intense right off the bat. Really, it’s just healthy eating no matter how you slice it. And we aren’t all that used to that in this country.

  93. 93.

    jk

    Biden allies are talking some stupid shit about Warren’s electability:

    “A vote for Elizabeth Warren in the primary is a vote for Trump in the general,” the self-described progressive Democrat said. “We’re thinking about the swing voters in other states, and we don’t want a repeat of what happened last time.”

    https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/15/joe-biden-elizabeth-warren-massachusetts-electable-1494580

    Personally, I’d take Warren over Biden in a heartbeat and hope she can wrap up this nomination asap.

  94. 94.

    RedDirtGirl

    I may have said this already here, but I took a selfie with a full-sized cut-out of Warren at an outreach table. Ima go see her tomorrow in Washington Square Park.

  95. 95.

    glory b

    I still want to hear an explanation from Warren about staying in the Repub party for so long, when the appeal to racial anxiety (that’s what I’ll call it) was clear.
    Also, what ruemara said.
    Love you guys, but none of her fans here want to address this.
    If she’s as smart and informed as she seems to be, how did she not see this? If she did, why was she okay with it?

  97. 97.

    Miss Bianca

    @germy: Altho’ if it *had* happened, I can only say that it would only make me hold American Pharaoh in higher esteem than I already do.

  98. 98.

    Another Scott

    @glory b: This ThinkProgress piece is about the best (though too short) piece I’ve seen.

    I was an independent. I was with the GOP for a while because I really thought that it was a party that was principled in its conservative approach to economics and to markets. And I feel like the GOP party just left that. They moved to a party that said, “No, it’s not about a level playing field. It’s now about a field that’s gotten tilted.” And they really stood up for the big financial institutions when the big financial institutions are just hammering middle class American families. I just feel like that’s a party that moved way, way away.

    Wikipedia:

    After obtaining a degree in speech pathology and audiology, but before enrolling in law school, Warren taught children with disabilities for a year in a public school. She taught with an “emergency certificate” because she had not taken the education courses required for a regular teaching certificate.

    […]

    Warren’s earliest academic work was heavily influenced by the law and economics movement, which aimed to apply neoclassical economic theory to the study of law with an emphasis on economic efficiency. One of her articles, published in 1980 in the Notre Dame Law Review, argued that public utilities were over-regulated and that automatic utility rate increases should be instituted.[25] But Warren soon became a proponent of on-the-ground research into how people respond to laws. Her work analyzing court records and interviewing judges, lawyers, and debtors, established her as a rising star in the field of bankruptcy law.[26] According to Warren and economists who follow her work, one of her key insights was that rising bankruptcy rates were caused not by profligate consumer spending but by middle-class families’ attempts to buy homes in good school districts.[27] Warren worked in this field alongside colleagues Teresa A. Sullivan and Jay Westbrook, and the trio published their research in the book As We Forgive Our Debtors in 1989. Warren later recalled that she had begun her research believing that most people filing for bankruptcy were either working the system or had been irresponsible in incurring debts, but that she came to the conclusion that such abuse was in fact rare and that the legal framework for bankruptcy was poorly designed, describing the way the research challenged her fundamental beliefs as “worse than disillusionment” and “like being shocked at a deep-down level”.[25] In 2004, she published an article in the Washington University Law Review in which she argued that over-consumption in the middle class was a myth.[28]

    […]

    I have no special insight, so I’ll resist the urge to try to explain her actions back then or try to read her mind. Her proposals about supporting HBCUs and housing and all the rest seem to be pretty strong now, but they don’t tell us about the past.

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  99. 99.

    B.B.A.

    I think Warren would make the best President out of the bunch. I still think Harris has the electability edge, though.

  100. 100.

    bemused senior

    @PsiFighter37: Check out this Miracle Suit. My twin grand kids (who live with me) are nearing 4 yo now, but my grand son was not such a good sleeper when a baby. This worked better than swaddling. The suit is stiff, and the arms can’t flail.

  103. 103.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @KSinMA: There are an awful lot of ex-Republicans who post and comment on this blog. I notice the zeal if the convert in a good number of them. Is it also the case with Warren? I really don’t know.

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