David Bernstein’s take on the Eliz. Warren pre-rollout strikes me as about right. It’s early for her to be doing a full media press, and frankly there’s no hurry — except the stated reasons of bruised feelings on the part of the local media-folk.
I’d nitpick with one thing: I’m quite confident that the activists do indeed understand that she’s already made up her mind to run — and indeed are eager to give their advice. She’ll get an earful from the Dem activist faithful, no doubt. But she’d do well to actually listen to them — with a big dollop of discernment, no doubt. She’s got to get up to speed on running a grassroots campaign, and on myriad issues that are not within her current area of expertise. Just because she’s got a good and salient motivation for a campaign doesn’t mean that she’s a complete candidate yet. And a skillful person could and should use these meetings to try to get a feel for the grassroots landscape, as it were.
The Palin comparison is actually useful. It’s not just that Sarah Palin was miserably unprepared to answer questions about national and international issues; it’s that she acted like she didn’t care that she didn’t know anything; that it didn’t matter, because she thought she already knew everything she ever needed to know. Being informed is perhaps largely about knowing how little you know — and appreciating that it might matter.
Warren will give the professional media all the time they want — eventually. But it really doesn’t make sense for her to go out as a bona fide candidate before she’s ready and comfortable. Even for a smart and accomplished person, it’s a steep learning curve.
So OK, maybe the term “listening tour” is a bit precious, but if she’s smart, she actually will do so.
Discuss
6 Comments . Leave a comment below.…maybe the first time I’ve read a column of his and you know what? Bad first impression. He’s extremely cynical, which at least he admits, and still trends toward the know-it-all attitude of political reporters we’ve been complaining about.
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I think he probably has it just about right.
A Berkshire Eagle Reporter was at her Pittsfield event, or so it seems. I guess maybe Kyle and Doug are just keeping the punditocratic reporters away until an official announcement. Conversely, it may be strategic so readers in Berkshire Cty who don’t follow politics ad nauseum could learn her name. Either way, you get the impression the press was not uninvited to this event.
Charley: “It’s not just that Sarah Palin was miserably unprepared to answer questions about national and international issues; it’s that she acted like she didn’t care that she didn’t know anything; that it didn’t matter, because she thought she already knew everything she ever needed to know. Being informed is perhaps largely about knowing how little you know — and appreciating that it might matter.”
Yeah, I think that was the McCain guy’s fault, Steve Schmidt, who should have advised her to “I don’t know” a lot more, but instead made her cram for a final exam as if we were electing someone to be wikipedia. Her popularity peaked when all the public knew about her was that she was a mother of five and the popular governor of Alaska. The public wasn’t expecting a genius or a professor who already knew everything, but they were expecting someone who knew she didn’t know everything.
And I think Warren’s popularity peaked when she was seen as a mother/homemaker who was helping other mothers navigate modern household debt and standing up for them against banks. Now that we know she’s a Harvard law professor and carrying water for establishment politicians, she’s lost her appeal.
…but your third paragraph is way off base. Carrying water for establishment politicians – really? Plus she’s been a professor for a while and that’s never been a secret among those who had heard of her at all.
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