Axelrod: Elizabeth Warren is running a brilliant campaign

[BeyondGeography]

(CNN) Here are my reflections on a stormy and revealing week in the Democratic presidential race.

The first is that Elizabeth Warren is running a strategically brilliant campaign.

More than any other candidate, she has a clear, unambiguous message that is thoroughly integrated with her biography. That is essential to a successful campaign. Her unsparing critique of corporate excess and her expansive -- and expensive -- agenda for change mirror those of the reigning left champion, Bernie Sanders, in places. But where Sanders sometimes seems like a parody of himself -- or of Larry David's parody of Sanders -- Warren seems fresher, deeper and more precise in her execution...

Can Biden get into gear?

Biden cleared the bar in his half of the debates — but not by much...Yet for those who fear that Biden, who is 76 and sometimes seems older, may not be up to this, his showing was only mildly reassuring. Biden stumbled in places, misstated numbers, struggled at times to pull up facts and and even fumbled his own text message in the close...

A question for Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris is the most confounding candidate in the Democratic field. On the one hand, she is smart, charismatic and appealing. Her takedown of Biden in their first debate encounter vaulted her into the top tier and heightened interest in her among soft supporters of other candidates and voters yet to decide.

What she needs to close the loop with many of them is a clear, discernible message. Why is she in this race?

More at https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/08/02/opinions/elizabeth-warren-campaign-axelrod/index.html

[CentralMass]

1. She is doing great and Bernie is as well.

[SargeXXX]

2. Warren is the Okie schoolmarn ready to take Trump to the woodshed.

[appalachiablue]

17. +1 That, and then some

[Skya Rhen]

3. He then went on to say: "I don't know if Elizabeth Warren will win the nomination. Her sometimes

professorial style can be off-putting and she has yet to break through with the white working class voters with whom Biden and Sanders are doing well.

Moreover, there are legitimate critiques of her policy on substantive and not just political grounds. But it is going to take more than what we saw on either stage this week to win that battle."

[BeyondGeography]

4. Warren/Biden obviously reminds him of Obama/Clinton

and you know how that worked out.

But Warren has put critics of her grand plans on the defensive in much the same way Barack Obama put Hillary Clinton on the defensive in 2008, when she argued that Obama's plans were fantastical in the real world of Washington.

A big aspirational message is more satisfying than a cramped, political one. Warren is positioning herself as Big Change versus the status quo. Yes We Can versus No We Can't.

[Princetonian]

5. Warren is no Obama. And Biden is quite different from Clinton.

[BeyondGeography]

6. They're both inferior in some ways

The big difference IMO is Obama had a direct path to the black vote once he cleared the bar in Iowa. Warren’s challenge is much tougher but Biden is a far less formidable opponent than Clinton.

[BlueMTexpat]

35. I thought one poster made a very

perceptive comment about Warren in another OP.

I paraphrase: She has Bill Clinton's emotional intelligence and ability to connect with voters and Hillary's plain old intelligence.

That's definitely a winning combination. Warren is moving steadily upwards in the polls as more voters see this for themselves.

[CTyankee]

23. and she fell for the Pocahontos bait trap set by Trump...

It was a waste of her time and energy to track down her native American heritage.

However, I posted yesterday that I could see her message get trhough to a lot of voters and that, with Cory as VP candidate, could be a powerhouse. We shall see how things shake out, tho.

[Blue_true]

27. I respect your posts, but I soundly disagree with you on this issue.

Trump was going to attack her on her belief in what her mother told her regardless. By getting the genetic test done early and making the result public, then smoothing over the fallout (Native American Cheifs, at least a couple getting upset), she has basically taken the power of Trump's assault on her heritage in a General away, she can simply point to the results and say that what her Mom told her was accurate, let Trump fumble from that point. Basically, as she seems to do, she looked ahead, saw a problem and then put in place a fix for it well ahead of when it would be needed.

[CTyankee]

31. I thought so too but when some of the chiefs were unhappy about what she did I was both

surprised and depressed. I really don't know what her best way of handling it would have been, though. I just despised the fact that Trump scored even that much off of her. I hold her in the highest possible regard.

[Blue_true]

32. The Chiefs that initially made statements have since said that she

correctly showed that she has Indian blood, but did not claim to be Indian. They are ok with her now and she has visited several Tribes and been welcomed.

[CTyankee]

33. Well, I hope their retraction is noted in the press. In some ways it's too late, Trump made his

hit and unfortunately, people will remember his accusation and not the retraction by the chiefs. I'm sick over the way this played out. I've seen a variation of this movie. The initial blow is remembered and the retraction isn't.

I hope I'm wrong. But I'm old and I've seen a variation of this situation in the past...

[Blue_true]

34. Trump will try to come back to that well.

When he does, I suspect that Warren has a plan to blow him up. Honestly, I think it is in his best interests to drop the issue, but he is a stupid and narcissistic asshole and won't drop it.

[BlueMTexpat]

36. +1!

She has already defanged it, IMO, except for those who have not been paying attention.

If tRump raises it against her, there'll be a "meh."

[customerserviceguy]

7. So far, she's done a good job

However, it will be interesting when she has to face either Booker or Harris, who are likely to be more effective at jabbing at her than Delaney was. If Gabbard can make the next debate stage and draw Warren as a fellow competitor, she might go for a jab herself.

Elizabeth Warren's been pretty lucky in the draws for her debate opponents so far. That cannot last.

[Skya Rhen]

13. Even if Warren continues to perform as brilliantly as she has, she still will be unable to garner

the percentage of black votes that she will need to win, nor will she be able to rack up the number of delegates, in the rust belt states, that she will need to capture the Democratic nomination. IMO

[customerserviceguy]

21. Agreed

She can probably do OK in New England, but, you're right, I don't see her doing well in a lot of the rest of the country. However, if she manages to win Iowa, I will have to eat those words.

[CTyankee]

24. That's why I see Cory Booker as her VP candidate. He would be terrific at rousing the black

communities support for the ticket (with an eye to "inheriting" the presidency after her two successful terms).

[Blue_true]

28. She has taken down all comers so far.

Gabbard going after her would likely be the worst mistake that Tulsi can make. I actually believe that Harris has more to fear facing Warren than the opposite. Wasn't Warren and Booker on the same stage in the first debate? If so, she won that pretty handily.

I think the big draw will be a debate with Warren on the same stage with Biden. That could happen in the next debate. I really think that Warren will be well prepared for that and will most likely win that head to head based upon what I have seen so far.

[customerserviceguy]

29. On the first debate

Booker got more talk time in, as I remember, but it was still the clown car thing.

It will get more intense when it gets down to under ten candidates still left standing.

[mr_liberal]

8. She's being pumped by the media to split the left with Bernie.

If she ever got close to the nomination they'd destroy her. She's like Bernie in 2016. She's getting a free ride because nobody really takes her very seriously.

[BeyondGeography]

9. Interesting. Who is "they"?

And how will “they” destroy her without throwing the 2020 election down the tubes?

[mr_liberal]

10. Theyd attack her as too far left, lying about being an Indian,....

...and who knows what else - she's never been scrutinized at the Presidential level.

They're cnn, msnbc, broadcasters, newspapers.... that all know she'd be a bad candidate for Democrats in the GE.

tbh Im not sure she's even serious herself. This is a theory, but I think she may actually be running for the good of the party to keep Bernie from getting too much support. I predict she won't attack Biden and she'll stay in the race as long as Bernie does and then either won't endorse anybody or will endorse the not-Bernie candidate, which will probably be Biden, late.

[BeyondGeography]

14. She'll be on the ticket

The only question is where IMO.

Bernie 2016 moved the party, including Biden, left, and Warren, whose career you are apparently unfamiliar with and whom you grievously underestimate, has added considerable heft and energy to his message. The main source of ideas and enthusiasm in the party is coming from the Warren-Sanders wing. It would be political malpractice not to leverage that with a unity ticket if a moderate is at the top.

[mr_liberal]

15. I said she's far left so its obvious Im not unfamiliar.

If Biden is the nominee then I doubt he'd choose her as running mate, it'd be two candidates that are old. He'd want somebody to give the ticket youth and be his successor. He'd probably want a minority too.

If its not Biden and its Booker, for example, then its possible.

[BeyondGeography]

16. She wasn't too far left in 2016

for Phillipe Reines to think she could help win the election:

Clinton “seriously weighed” Warren as a potential running mate, the report states, and top aide Philippe Reines wrote in a memo to his boss after their meeting: “If a crystal ball said she wouldn’t antagonize you for four years, it’s hard to argue she isn’t the most helpful for the next four months to get you elected.”

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/25/warren-hillary-clinton-vice-president-1435422

This time around she’ll bring along an actual movement.

If we have a populist-free ticket we’re in trouble.

[cannabis_flower]

19. Elizabeth Warren is 70 but

I had to look it up because she seems much younger. If I was guessing from her appearance I would have thought she was closer to 60, maybe 55.

[Demsrule86]

20. She will not be on the ticket IMHO.

[Blue_true]

30. When did she lie about being an Indian?

She said in one case that she had American Induan blood, which genetic tests proved. When she made that declaration, it was difficult to tell 1/4th Indian blood from 1/15th Indian blood. There are blonde-haired, blue eyed Whites in Oklahoma today that are 1/3 Indian. Ellen Chenoweth is an example of a very European looking person that has a large amount of Indian blood.

[BlueMTexpat]

37. Exactly! eom

[JoeOtterbein]

11. Rec'd cause I think Liz is great!

Axe, not as much.

[zentrum]

12. Yes she is!

[AlexSFCA]

18. I'd vote for her with enthusiasm

[tonedevil]

22. The thing that is different...

about Senator Warren is she started small and has worked tirelessly continuously garnering more support as time goes on. She didn't get any boost or particular support when she started. The Pocahontas bullshit was revived and her opening video wasn't very well received.
Compared to Senator Harris or VP Biden who both were out in front as soon as they announced. Biden was very smart not jumping in right away because there was such anticipation when he did he landed like a brand new Beatles album.
Way too far out to speculate who we will still be talking about when voting begins. That said, I am impressed with the slow but steady climb she is making to try to capture the nomination. Biden held back to have maximum effect when he launched. Harris tagged Biden in the debate to stir up some enthusiasm. Warren just chugs along talking to every small gathering and explaining how she has plans to fix what's broken. She makes solid gains everyday and holds onto what she had.

[crazytown]

25. Warren has put in a lot of time and effort on the ground

She has put in more money into organization, hired more and better field staff than anyone else, visited and established operations in every state and has done almost twice as many town halls as anyone else. Warren has tapped the best and brightest in academia, not only for policy development, but analytics. At some stage it will dawn on the other campaigns what the significance of 40,000+ selfies are, but even when the penny drops, will they be prepared to stay around 2 or 3 hours after every event?

Warren is living her slogan: Dream Big. Fight Hard. Win. No-one is dreaming bigger or working harder.

[dlk]

26. Brilliant Woman/Brilliant Campaign - Imagine That

Thanks for sharing, David

[Laura PourMeADrink]

38. Love her...but think Axelrod has turned into a Dipshit. Imho