Wednesday Open Thread [12.17.14]

Jason330 wrote about Senator Elizabeth Warren’s speech on the Senate floor last week, and the punditry is still talking about it, and the possibility, despite her refusal, that she will run against Hillary Clinton for President. John Cassidy at The New Yorker:

Right now, the Democratic Party has three leaders: President Obama, who is term-limited; Clinton, the establishment successor-in-waiting; and Warren, whose role is difficult to define, but also increasingly difficult to ignore. Of the three, there’s no doubt who is conveying the most consistent message and generating the most enthusiasm among liberal activists: it’s Warren, with her populist crusade against Wall Street and moneyed interests. […]

The speech she delivered on the floor of the Senate on Friday evening has been viewed more than a quarter of a million times on YouTube. Also on Friday, more than three hundred people who worked on the Obama campaigns in 2008 and 2012 signed a public letter urging Warren to enter the Presidential race. […] In saying that she’s not running, Warren can continue to use her prominent position in the Senate to promote the causes she believes in. She can also wait to see if Clinton falters. If that doesn’t happen, Warren can eventually fall in line with the party establishment and help elect the first female President. But if Clinton does stumble badly, in Iowa or before, Warren would still have an opportunity to step in. With her name recognition and army of supporters nationwide, many of them young and tech-savvy, she could quickly raise money and put together an improvised campaign operation.

Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post:

…Let’s say Warren absolutely does not want to run for president and won’t be persuaded no matter what happens in the world over the next three to six months. Okay, fine. It still does her NO good to definitively rule out running right now because the second she does that, the huge national media spotlight will begin roving elsewhere — limiting Warren’s influence. At the moment, there is no story bigger in politics than what Warren will do. She can use that attention to push her pet issues — restricting corporate America and addressing income inequality. She did just that last week with her loudly-declared opposition to the omnibus bill because of its loosening of some derivative trading rules on corporations. Warren’s power is at its height nationally at the moment. It makes zero sense for her to pop that balloon herself.

[…] I don’t doubt Warren isn’t super-interested in the presidential race right now. But, circumstances change. And, over the next few months — if the drumbeat for her candidacy by the party’s left keeps up or even grows louder — who knows what might happen?

And conservative David Brooks also sees potential:

[T]oday, even for those of us who disagree with Warren fundamentally, it seems clear that she does have a significant and growing chance of being nominated. Her chances are rising because of that word “fight.” The emotional register of the Democratic Party is growing more combative. There’s an underlying and sometimes vituperative sense of frustration toward President Obama […] The fundamental truth is that every structural and historical advantage favors Clinton, but every day more Democrats embrace the emotion and view defined by Warren.

This polling result makes me ashamed to be an American:

Back to presidential race polls, so I can forget how evil, inhumane and Naziesque my fellow Americans are.

NATIONAL–PRESIDENT—Fox News: Clinton 52, Christie 40; Clinton 49, Bush 42; Clinton 53, Kasich 37; Clinton 51, Paul 40;

NATIONAL–PRESIDENT–REPUBLICAN PRIMARY–Fox News: Romney 19, Bush 10, Christie 8, Paul 8, Huckabee 8, Walker 7, Carson 6, Ryan 6, Cruz 5, Rubio 4, Kasich 2, Perry 2, Jindal 1, Santorum 1

NATIONAL–PRESIDENT–DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY–Fox News: Clinton 62, Warren 12, Biden 10, Sanders 3, Cuomo 2, O’Malley 1, Webb 1

NATIONAL–PRESIDENT–REPUBLICAN PRIMARY–ABC/Washington Post: Romney 20, Bush 10, Paul 9, Ryan 8.

NATIONAL–PRESIDENT—McClatchy/Marist: Clinton 53, Christie 41; Clinton 53, Bush 40; Clinton 54, Paul 40; Clinton 53, Romney 41

NATIONAL–PRESIDENT–DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY–McClatchy/Marist: Clinton 62, Biden 11, Warren 9, Sanders 4, O’Malley 1, Webb, Unsure 11

NATIONAL–PRESIDENT–REPUBLICAN PRIMARY–McClatchy/Marist: Romney 19, Bush 14, Christie 9, Huckabee 9, Carson 8. The rest of the field is under 3 percent.