Day: February 19, 2015

Hillary Clinton held a private, one-on-one meeting with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) in December at Mrs. Clinton’s Washington home, “a move by the Democrats’ leading contender in 2016 to cultivate the increasingly influential senator and leader of the party’s economic populist movement,” the New York Times reports. “The get-together represented a step toward relationship-building for two women who do not know each other well. And for Mrs. Clinton, it was a signal that she would prefer Ms. Warren’s counsel delivered in person, as a friendly insider, rather than on national television or in opinion articles. And for Ms. Warren, the meeting offered the opportunity to make clear what she believes are the most pressing national issues.” To me, it sounds like that first step in the dance we usually see when a candidate for a party nomination has just more or less locked it up and is exploring an endorsement from the principal rival without demanding an acknowledgment of defeat, not unlike the meeting in a Washington townhouse in 2008 between then Senators Obama and Clinton. But Bloomberg Politics' Emily Greenhouse, thinks it might represent more, not Clinton vanquishing Warren, but the other way around:

Some might have interpreted the report as a sign that Clinton was taking Warren under her wing. But for Warren's most vocal supporters, the self-appointed army raging for economic populism, the tête-à-tête meant just about the opposite. Ilya Sheyman, the executive director of MoveOn.org Political Action, which with Democracy for America launched the project Run Warren Run, sounded emboldened. "It's more evidence that Sen. Warren and progressives are driving the conversation within the Democratic Party,” he said, through a spokesman. “That's why we're eager for Elizabeth Warren to run for President, and any candidate would do well to speak to the issues she's led on -- like tackling income inequality, student debt, and taking on the big banks."