Warren boxed herself in on Sanders, now she's struggling to take him on

[RandySF]

HOUSTON — Elizabeth Warren has a Bernie Sanders problem — and she needs a plan to solve it, fast.

A race that began with Warren being “with Bernie” on progressive policies, like Medicare For All, has now become one where she is trying to make clear to voters that she’s an alternative to the Vermont senator who has assumed the front-runner position in the 2020 Democratic presidential field.

But while other candidates launch broadsides against Sanders — both on policy and personality — Warren is has been more limited in her ability to attack, both because of some overlap in their support but also because of mutual policy underpinnings to their campaigns.

”That’s a box, in some ways, she has created for herself,” Democratic strategist Joel Payne told NBC. Warren “doesn’t get the full credit from the left” for policy goals shared with Sanders’, Payne said, but does “get the same stigma” of being considered too radical by the middle of the Democratic Party.

That’s not to say she isn’t making the differences known, anyway. After a disappointing fifth place finish in South Carolina Saturday, Warren took aim at her top-tier rivals, specifically Sanders and Biden.

“This crisis demands more than a former vice president so eager to cut deals with Mitch McConnell and the Republicans that he’ll trade good ideas for bad ones,” she said of Biden before moving on to Sanders as “a Senator who has good ideas, but whose 30-year track record shows he consistently calls for things he fails to get done, and consistently opposes things he nevertheless fails to stop.”



https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/warren-boxed-herself-sanders-now-she-s-struggling-take-him-n1145936

[squirecam]

1. This stuff is the desperation

Of one who knows it’s ending but doesn’t want to accept it.

Biden is not going to institute MCConnell’s bad deals. In fact, Joe is running to make McConnell minority leader.

Warren needed to take on Sanders in October. It’s far too late to change his voters minds, when he is going to win CA and MA, her own home state.

[beastie boy]

5. She is a decent human being. That makes it difficult fot her to be a calculating politician.

Logic dictates she has nothing to gain by allying herself with Bernie. It is certainly not reciprocal, and her chances of her sharing supporters with Bernie's are dwindling. But she cast her lot, and now she seems to have developed a sense of obligation to the "movement".

With Bernie becoming the virtual front runner, it is increasingly unlikely she can bring in more support from the left. The only source left for her to get additional support is center-left, or the pragmatic progressives. This is a somewhat vaguely defined group of people whose loyalties are not driven by the revolutionary fervor or commitment to tradition.They fall somewhere in between Buttigieg and Sanders, and they may translate into a sizable voting block.This means she must confront both Buttigieg and Sanders.

Warren seems reluctant to go in this direction. But at the end of the day, it might beat the alternative.

[NYMinute]

7. It would be nearly impossible for a woman to woo Sanders' devotees.

[abqtommy]

2. Well, Elizabeth didn't ask me for my advice and that's good since I'm not qualifed to give it. So

don't expect me to criticize her for doing what she thinks is best.

disclaimer: I support Elizabeth.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. I like Warren, I love her ideas

but she's a walking policy think tank. That's not playing well, or at least not very popularly. Whether it's because male candidates are just louder, i'll leave that for someone else to ponder.

[peggysue2]

4. Think this piece is correct

She has boxed herself in and it's too bad because she's a good candidate, a solid alternative to Sanders, IMHO. I don't agree with the broadside against Biden (he's never said he'd compromise Democratic principles whether he works with McConnell or not). But that's neither here nor there because Warren ran during the early months, hip-to-hip with Bernie, going so far as ceding healthcare policy to the Senator from Vermont. Then when she tried to carve out her own space, even putting together a rushed payment plan? Things started to collapse.

Can she get it back? My instinct says, no. But I certainly wouldn't rule out a turnaround, not after last night.

Primaries are strange animals!

[boston bean]

8. There is no alternative for the true believers.

[peggysue2]

9. You're right, Boston Bean

The true believers would not be swayed one way or the other. That was made clear with the savaging Warren took after the argument on women running in 2020. Which makes Warren's reluctance to go after Sanders even more mysterious. Unless (I guess) as some have suggested she was hoping for a VP slot.

I just can't figure it out.

[NYMinute]

6. She should drop out and endorse Biden at this point.

That will save a lot of political capital for the future.