Yeah, it would have been nice to see what would happen if she went full FDR-style “I welcome their hatred.” Couldn’t have turned out any worse than it did.
(Caveat: I’m not a Warren supporter for 2020. I am worried the media learned nothing from their 2016 coverage, and as Taibbi demonstrates, they haven’t.)
Warren recently also has been hit with bad-coverage synonyms like a “lingering cloud” (the Times ), a “darkening cloud” (the Globe ) and “controversy” that “reverberates” (the Washington Post ).
The papers are all citing each other’s negative stories as evidence for Warren’s problems. It’s comic, once you lay it all out.
The Boston Globe earlier this week wrote: “It’s been a rough few weeks for Warren’s White House hopes. Does it matter?”
The Globe cited an earlier negative article in the Times with the headline “Elizabeth Warren Stands By Her DNA Test. But Around Her, Worries Abound.” (“Worriesabound” is another tired campaign-ism.)
The Globe cited the Washington Post article as part of Warren’s darkening “cloud.” Meanwhile, the Post article mentioned, as part of Warren’s reverberating “controversy,” an earlier editorial in the Globe. The Globe then mentioned its own earlier op-ed, the same one the Post referenced (“mix that together with an unflattering editorial from her hometown paper,” the Globe wrote, about itself).
The paper went on to conclude:
The media had ingredients for countless other stories painting a picture of a wounded Warren campaign — before it’s even gotten off the ground.
The article went on to describe a “candidate with a Hillary Clinton-like problem that just won’t go away.”
Why won’t it go away? Because we keep writing about it. The Globe euphemistically calls this a “media moment.” The actual term is probably “circle jerk,” but it’s a family paper.
Let’s turn Timex’s question around and ask it this way: if Beto (or someone similarly progressive) is at the top of the Democratic ticket for 2020, who would you propose as a VP pick, assuming you want to float someone who would attract more conservative voters, while remaining in the Democratic party. So, somebody designed to carry Florida, for example. You are never going to carry Alabama or South Carolina, but is there somebody who would carry Florida, or Texas, or Missouri for the Democrats?
Timex
6506
Someone conservative, but with a good amount of experience.
Maybe McAuliffe.
Honestly, if you are going to pick a Democrat, I don’t think it really matters. Maybe just pick someone from a state that you want extra support in.
I don’t think you are going to get much electoral benefit from the VP pick if you are running someone like Beto. Probably just pick someone with more experience, like Obama did with Biden. I don’t see any particular Democrat as being particularly attractive to moderate Republicans.
Menzo
6507
Timex predicts Beto/Pelosi 2020!
I’d pick what’s her face from Minnesota… Klobuchar. Everyone likes her!
Menzo
6509
O’Rourke/Gore 2020. It’s time.
You guys clearly are forgetting the dream ticket of Chelsea Clinton/Beto O’Rourke.
I think you mean “nobody dislikes her.”
TBF, it’s a fine distinction up here.
Nesrie
6512
Hillary. Warren. Pelosi, all have challenges in their “ability to connect”. I wonder what else they have in common.
Meanwhile, you just look at all the other Congressmen and they’re just oozing with likability, is that right?
Jesus Christ, Nes. Saying “she doesn’t have the charisma of Clinton (B) or Obama (B)” is not coded misogyny. They are legendarily charismatic.
No doubt, there’s no shortage of coded misogyny that gets thrown her way. But that’s not what @magnet has been doing, and it’s unfair to tar him with that brush.
For me, I find Warren pretty charismatic and fiery when she gets rolling. But I’m pretty well in her policy wheelhouse (i.e. I feel like we should treat people like people and use the incredible largesse our industrialized society produces to improve the lives of all, like a god damned pinko commie). Others may vary.
magnet
6514
They all have more in common with John Kerry than with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. HRC more so than the other two.
Just two, the aforementioned Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the ever charming Ted Lieu. Too bad they are both currently ineligible for the Presidency.
Nesrie
6515
It is misogyny.
It’s the way they cover these women. I mean they actually criticized Hillary for not smiling enough, and then they went after her for not smiling correctly, and then there was the pantsuit… Trump hasn’t worn a suit that fits properly since they could’t stop putting mics in front of his face. McConnell… uh, McConnell, you think the newspapers are going to chase him around talking about likability.
This shit dogs the older women in the ways it does not dog the older men. It’s simply right there. I am not going to back down simply because it’s uncomfortable to point out. The likability of women over a certain age seems to be front in center in ways it simply is not for everyone else.
Timex
6516
Most of the toads in Congress ALSO ain’t gonna win a presidential election.
You’re right, it is literally impossible to comment on the charisma of female politicians without being a misogynist.
We all agree that there is often coded misogyny in the way they are covered in the media. Fuck’s sake.
That’s different than saying in a post on Qt3 that “Elizabeth Warren doesn’t have the charisma of the generationally gifted Bill Clinton or Barack Obama.”
magnet
6519
Yes, the media is unfair. But they also criticized Obama over a tan suit and Kerry over his military service. Some people can overcome media criticism, others can’t.
Nesrie
6520
Not what I said. They are not going after Cortez in the same way they are attacking Pelosi, Warren and Hillary. But if you can find an older woman in politics that doesn’t have pages and pages of trying to redress her, change her smile or dear god even her tone, you let me know. Meanwhile we’ll watch Trump’s suit flap all over the place because he’s a “common” man and the only people required to dress in certain way are women. Fortunately for Cortez, when they go after her shoes, she is quick enough to reply with a witty comment that people enjoy.
Any woman who puts herself forwards for the Presidency is going to have a problem with misogyny (open on the right, closeted on the left). She’ll be criticized for her lack of likability and charisma, and called “too shrill” and whatever else.
Hopefully the more women run, women themselves will stop falling for that shit and a woman will have a fighting chance.
Timex
6522
Trump is pretty widely called out for how awful he looks, dresses, behaves, etc.
Especially when he’s next to someone like Trudeau.
