Elizabeth Warren's charm

By Richard K. Barry

I fully understand why Hillary Clinton is still playing hard to get. Though we all know she will be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016, she has to roll out that fact on her own timetable in order to minimize her exposure as a target for her opponents. 

Elizabeth Warren will not run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, and though I think her "economic populist" message is one of the most important recent themes in American politics, Ms. Warren is not ready for prime time. 

Still, she is a hot ticket, especially on the fund-raising circuit. As per Huffington Post:  

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is quickly becoming a top Democratic fundraiser and campaign powerhouse, hitting the road on behalf of candidates in key races the party will need to win to retain control of the U.S. Senate in November.

Since March, the Massachusetts Democrat has stumped for candidates in Ohio, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington and Kentucky and has trips planned this week for West Virginia and Michigan. It's a hefty schedule for a freshman senator who not long ago was teaching law at Harvard.

Campaigning in Kentucky with Democratic Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes, Warren had this to say about Senate Republican efforts to scuttle a bill that would let college grads refinance their students loans at lower rates: 

When you've got a choice between billionaires and students, Mitch McConnell says it is more important to protect the billionaires.

Not that this is overly incendiary stuff, but it is the kind of stuff I'd like more of those in the Democratic leadership say. I'd really like Hillary Clinton to beat this particular drum, though I'm not holding my breath.  She and Bill are simply too close to the boys and girls on Wall Street and wouldn't want to suggest that the wealthier sort are a great part of the problem, not the solution.  In the words of Bush '41: 'Not gonna happen."

Yes, Hillary is the best way to ensure the GOP doesn't get its grubby little hands on the White House. For that reason alone I'm on board. Sad that American politics has come to this.

As for Elizabeth Warren, it's probably too late for her ever to run for the presidency, though she can do some fine work in the Senate. And if, in the longer run,  she encourages a few on the left to understand that you don't fundamentally change a corrupt system by begging the wealthiest in the land for table scraps, we could do worse.

Are you listening, Hill?