Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Scott Brown, Karl Rove, and the rest of the Republican Party is coughing in Elizabeth Warren’s dust tonight. Ryan Grim in HuffPo hits the key notes:
“The Republican vision is clear: ‘I’ve got mine, the rest of you are on your own,'” Warren told a cheering convention crowd here. “Republicans say they don’t believe in government. Sure they do. They believe in government to help themselves and their powerful friends. After all, Mitt Romney’s the guy who said corporations are people.
“No, Governor Romney, corporations are not people. People have hearts, they have kids, they get jobs, they get sick, they cry, they dance. They live, they love, and they die. And that matters. That matters because we don’t run this country for corporations. We run it for people,” she said.
Warren walked on stage to a thunderous greeting and chants of “Warren! Warren!” — underscoring the passion the Democratic base has for her Senate candidacy. She delivered the first half of her speech more like a lecture than a barnburner.
“People feel like the system is rigged against them,” Warren said. “And here’s the painful part: they’re right. The system is rigged. Look around. Oil companies guzzle down billions in subsidies. Billionaires pay lower tax rates than their secretaries. Wall Street CEOs — the same ones who wrecked our economy and destroyed millions of jobs — still strut around Congress, no shame, demanding favors, and acting like we should thank them.
“Anyone here have a problem with that?”
What we need for Massachusetts is competence, vision for our common wealth, and the honesty to speak for one’s true principles. Warren delivers that. Scott Brown has all the smooth talk of the second-generation professional politician he is, but in fact he hasn’t been able to accomplish much of anything for Massachusetts.
danfromwaltham says
Bill Clinton talked about the need for bipartisanship, working together, nobody is 100% right, and mentioned how Dick Lugar was defeated b/c he worked across party lines.
Senator Brown will point to his voting record and bills that Obama has signed such as Dodd/Frank, DADT, Insider Trading Bill he sponsored, and ranked second most bipartisan senator in 2012. Warren is on the record saying she likes to throw rocks, so watch Brown turn Clinton’s own words into an ad touting his independent voting record.
mannygoldstein says
set the stage for millions of jobs getting sent overseas, tried to slash Social Security, would do anything Wall Street asked him to do, and so forth, I suspect that he might well feel very, very close to Scott Brown.
Bob Neer says
Why can’t he get anything done for the Commonwealth, Dan? Because he’s too busy being a professional Republican politician, or because he doesn’t care, do you think?
danfromwaltham says
The Cap & Trade Bill that passed Pelosi’s House and Obama itching to sign, would have raised cost of energy for a family of four by $2,000!!! The exact dollar amount Warren was hammering last night as a tremendous burden to the middle class in potential tax increases under Romney/Ryan. So I take it it’s fine to pay unnecessarily high energy costs, thus living poorly?
Does Warren remember that under Bill Clinton, we paid at one point $0.89 per gallon, during the height of the boom? Will she pursue policies that lower energy prices or keep them high so alternative energies can be more competitive?
mike_cote says
You wrote two paragraphs and did not mention God even once. I am shock. Shock! I tell you. You have at least 3 comments within this post alone and have not mentioned God even once How should we view this?
Yesterday, it was you primary concern. Just saying!!.
mannygoldstein says
her delivery was somewhat flat. Did someone tell her to turn it down, or was she ill? She has great stuff to say, she needs to thunder it out.
She might consider coaching from whoever turned Deval into the critter we saw on Tuesday. I think he’s taken up fighting bobcats with his bare hands.
liveandletlive says
This has been one of the most horribly run campaigns I have ever watched. I can only hope she wins in spite of the failures of whoever is running the technical aspects of her campaign. Who thought it would be a good idea to ignore the independents? Who thought it was a good idea to wait months to put a campaign office phone number on her website? Who thought it was a good idea to ignore incoming emails from potential supporters when she first made it clear she was running for senate? Who thought it was a good idea to squander the momentum she came into the race with? All of those decisions only helped her to lose support. This is still an uphill battle. Dear God, I hope she wins.
merrimackguy says
or maybe she’s inept. Must be one or the other don’t you think?
JHM says
Happy days.
oceandreams says
… try to turn a candidate into someone they’re not. You don’t need to “thunder it out” in order to get elected to the U.S. Senate. Does Susan Collins thunder it out? Olympia Snowe? (For that matter, does Scott Brown? I actually don’t know, having never seen him give a nationally televised speech.)
mannygoldstein says
That should be cultivated, not suppressed. It’s interesting that I’ve read in several places this morning that she showed herself to be more “polished” than before, so others have noticed a change, too. I guess some like the change – I like the rough edges, it’s what makes people interesting.
oceandreams says
Elizabeth Warren was proud to stand up at her party’s National Convention and talk about values — shared values. Scott Brown is trying to hide his Republican affiliation and hope people forget that he’s going to vote to support putting GOP leaders of the far right in control of the U.S. Senate. Elizabeth Warren talks about her signal accomplishment: working with President Obama to create the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Brown gets testy if his opponent dares talk about his record (what else is she supposed to talk about? His truck?)
bostonshepherd says
The Consumer Financial Protection Agency is likely unconstitutional, as well, as it usurps Congress’s appropriation power.
Its concept is ok, but the agency lacks any congressional oversight, has unchecked rule-making ability, and its decisions are not appealable.
liveandletlive says
She delivered it beautifully. It was clear, informative, and meaningful. She will be an amazing senator.
merrimackguy says
Does that mean everyone who succeeds is part of the system, or are they succeeding in spite of the system?
Who is doing the rigging? The “man”?
What about those articles on high powered women in Bosotn?
Are they part of the system, duped by it, or what?
I just don’t buy into conspiracies, but I’m willing to listen to interpretations of what she meant.
Maybe I’m just not getting it.
danfromwaltham says
when you check a box claiming to be something that you are not, in order to give you an advantage over other qualified candidates.
michaelbate says
he and his supporters keep bringing up this irrelevant Cherokee nonsense. Charles Fried, a Republican who was Reagan’s solicitor general and heavily involved in hiring Elizabeth at Harvard Law, has said that anyone who thinks her Cherokee background played any role in her hiring is an idiot. He is correct!
She gave a fabulous speech and I am proud to support her, based on how she will vote and how Brown has voted. I don’t care at all what background she has, what religion she is, or these other distractions.
johnd says
that comes out about EW, you will vote for her regardless. Her speech was not fabulous and it was flat. Sorry some of yo cannot face the truth. Kudos to those of you who support EW, but are not Kool-Aid drinkers unable to criticize her when it’s warranted.
jconway says
My girlfriend, a Midwestern Methodist’s pastors daughter commented that Warren was reciting the Great Commission and exalting us to go forward on a mission to change the world. The delivery was flat, but I think it was honest and her middle American values and concern for workers should shine through in debates. Brown was elected during a unique nadir in Obamas popularity, even in MA, and had a lot of hard core conservative support. Now he has to run away from his party and talk of working with the President while staying he will be “independent” for MA and Warren can show she will take on the fat cats and work with Obama to build a new economy.