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New Orleans I’m a huge fan of Elizabeth Warren. I’ve read her books. I appreciate her candor and convictions. We all owe her thanks for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, no matter what the Supreme Court says. We owe her thanks for many things in the past and, hopefully, many more in the future.
As it turns out, I wasted my absentee ballot for the Louisiana primary election a month from now, but I have no regrets. I knew what I was doing. I knew she was toast. I knew she would be out before the end of the week after Super Tuesday, and so she was. I figured I owed her, even if she was not going to win for what she has done, and for some indelible lessons I think she has taught other progressives.
Elizabeth Warren in my book will always be the “woulda, shoulda, coulda” President of the United States. Not for 2020, but for 2016, when I believe she would have won, if she had been willing to jump in the water. I have to admit that a part of me has never forgiven her for her temerity. President Obama had already proven that a relative rookie could win with the right message and a tight handhold on making history. Elizabeth Warren would have been the perfect banner carrier for something similar and with a more progressive program. She would have been a better candidate in every way than Hillary Clinton. I’m not taking anything away from Clinton, but in a race against Trump her lack of a record and the downside of too much baggage carried by Clinton, Warren would have been a winner. People wanted a fighter, and they saw one in Trump, not Clinton, but they would have been even more moved by Warren.
It was easy to see what the 2016 race would have been in the amazing, razor sharp takedown she performed on another billionaire, Michael Bloomberg. Warren in the debate with Bloomberg cut him to pieces and was willing to be clear about whether or not anyone could buy the presidency. Bloomberg was more than a billionaire, he was an experienced politician with a real record, but against Warren he was a cheap suit. Can you image what she would have done to a pretend billionaire like Trump? It wouldn’t have been pretty, but it would have been joyful!
Thanks are owed for Warren for sending Bloomberg back to New York City and cashing in on his commitment now to put a billion dollars into the eventual nominee to face Trump in 2020. Thanks, are also owed to Warren indirectly for creating the large field of candidates that wanted to face Trump now. Her indecision in 2016 must have been a huge incentive for a number of good candidates to be willing to take the plunge and run, rather than regret lost opportunities which Warren will surely have to do the rest of her life.
Many are called, but few are chosen. It’s true, but those called need to stand up and meet the people and let them decide. Warren should have been willing to do that in 2016, and if so, she would be president. She was ready in 2020, but now after four years of Trump horror, her time has gone. Woulda, shoulda, coulda.