Before retiring, Harry Reid told Elizabeth Warren to run for president

[kpete]

Link to tweet

Harry Reid, the former Democratic Senate Minority Leader, thinks Elizabeth Warren should run for president in 2020 — and he told Warren as much before he retired last year.

Buried deep in a story about the future of the Democratic Party’s opposition movement in the Donald Trump era, the New York Times Magazine’s Charles Homans set the scene:

Shortly before Thanksgiving, he summoned Warren to the minority leader's office. When she arrived, the room was littered with art supplies; on an easel was a half-finished portrait of Reid that would be unveiled at his retirement party the following month. Its subject was preoccupied with the future of the party to which he had dedicated decades of his life. Reid told Warren she needed to think seriously about running for president in 2020.

Warren was already floated as a possible Democratic presidential candidate in the runup to the 2016 presidential election. A progressive senator from Massachusetts — and trusted ally of Reid’s — Warren, the former head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, seemed to bridge a gap between the Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton factions of the Democratic Party. (Matt Yglesias made the case for Warren in 2015.) At the time, her critics ultimately deemed her too inexperienced on foreign policy to make a successful run for president in 2016.

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http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/3/14/14912946/harry-reid-elizabeth-warren-president-2020

[NCTraveler]

1. Would have been a great addition to the field.

I really think it would have made it a very close primary. Warren might have taken it.

[HopeAgain]

2. I would vote for her. Nt

[lapfog_1]

3. In a heartbeat

but in 2020 she will be 71. She looks and sounds great right now (a few years older than me)... the question will be will she want to engage in a national campaign schedule then?

[mopinko]

5. i think an older woman is an easier lift.

a female barack obama would be hard pressed to convince a lot of people of her cred. (unless we are talkin michelle here, then..... )

[djg21]

8. Too old and from a decidedly blue state.

This would be stupid. If the Electoral College remains, as it will, the Dems need a candidate from a swing state like Ohio, PA, FL, Ohio, or from a red state that can be taken away from the Repugs. Massachusetts is in the blue column irrespective of who runs.

We also need a youthful candidate that speaks to the millennials, and not one in her seventies.

[seaglass]

4. Love my Senator, agree about the lack of foreign policy "experience" but she has time if

she wants to get up to speed and she certainly is smart enough.

Not sure that I want her to run for President though.

[Starry Messenger]

6. I think in our new trumpian world, caveats about experience in anything kind fall by the wayside

She'd be miles ahead of the pack of weasels in there now. I'm more concerned about her appeal outside the progressive bubble.

[Ruy Lopez]

7. Here we go again, firebrands. We need centrist moderation

We need centrists providing healthcare to all and taxing all, including MNCs.

And retraining in the Rust Belt. Not crusaders against Wall Street.

[HopeAgain]

10. Sure if we want to make sure the millenials dont vote again. nt

[Ruy Lopez]

12. Why chase the dog's tail?

There is a rise of the extremes everywhere.
Big tent parties have everything to lose by bucking the trend.

Look where the GOP has landed now by letting extremists steal the show (Carson, Cruz, Trump): with a clown who will remain in history books as one of the most idiotic presidents ever. Down there with Buchanan, Harding and GW.

[BainsBane]

9. Problem is her numbers are worse than Hillary's were

three years out from her run. This county hates women.

[KittyWampus]

11. No, It's time to allow the younger Democrats to take the fight forward.

[JudyM]

14. Qualifications and personality should be what we look at. We are Dems, not bigots.

[JudyM]

13. No slight to Senator Warren, but Reid is the last person I'd rely on for an effective strategy.