Elizabeth Warren - An Impressive Candidate

The lady in the picture above is Professor Elizabeth Warren (who teaches at Harvard University). She was the person who was responsible for creating the president's new Consumer Protection Bureau -- which is supposed to protect ordinary Americans from the predatory practices of large banks and corporations. The president had nominated her to also be the first head of that agency, but her nomination was blocked by congressional Republicans (because they knew she would be effective in reining in the greedy and unethical practices of some American businesses -- and they couldn't have that).

That could have been a huge mistake for the Republicans, and may wind up costing them a senate seat. That's because she has gone back to Massachusetts and declared herself as a candidate for the senate seat currently held by Scott Brown. When she was first being considered as a candidate the polls had her 18 points down to Brown. But she now leads him by two points in the latest poll (46% to 44%). That's within the margin of error, but the important thing is that she has gained 20 points in just a few meager weeks, and that's pretty damn impressive.

Some people had said it could be hard for Warren to connect with common people (being a Harvard professor), but that 20 point rise in the polls would tend to belie that notion. And the speech she gave just a few days ago would back that up. Here is just a part of that speech (talking about the debt the rich owe to their fellow Americans):

I hear all this, you know, “Well, this is class warfare, this is whatever.”—No! There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there—good for you! But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did.

Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea—God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.

I think this dynamic and very smart lady is going to be a great candidate -- and an even better senator.