On MNSBC's Morning Joe, sidekick Willie Geist was making a run at grilling consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren about her newly-minted campaign for Senate. He tried hard to stump her and paint her as being in over her pretty little head on the rough and tumble campaign trail, but by now talking heads should know better than to take on Warren in that way.
In questioning her about U.S./China relations, Geist interrupted her because he wrongly assumed she hadn't understood his question about the Chinese economy. Warren very calmly assured Willie she knew exactly what she was talking about, the tone of her response clearly signalling -- I understand your question, Willie, I'm just trying to explain why your premise (that China's economy and military aren't connected) is wrong.
Warren politely, but firmly, tried to steer herMorning Joe conversation toward how much she's enjoying the campaign trail, when Geist chimed with another attempt to show he's smarter than the Harvard professor and creator of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by wondering how in the world she'd ever have the energy to keep up a campaign when she'd never run for office before. Was that a back-handed insinuation that a woman who's never run for office is unqualified to run at all? Because I don't remember anyone ever asking that of pizza entrepreneur Herman Cain or any other male candidates on their first attempt at running for office.
All I can say for Geist is that it's a good thing Warren wasn't in the same room during that interview, because even as well-mannered as she is on television, I'm pretty sure she would have slapped his hand or tossed that cup of joe at him across the table for suggesting such a ridiculous idea.
I'll give Geist and others a little benefit of the doubt when figuring out how to approach an interview with Warren. I suppose it is a little odd to talk with a candidate who doesn't parse every sentence to make sure it's not going to effect their poll numbers or alienate the wrong group. It must seem a little strange to have someone running for the U.S. Senate who seems completely comfortable with the idea of saying exactly what she believes is the right thing for struggling American families simply for the reason that she believes what she's saying, regardless of what the ultimate political consequences are for her.
The aspect of Elizabeth Warren's candidacy that some observers can't get their head around is this -- Warren is more concerned about using her Senate race as an opportunity to keep a focus on what's happened to the economy and what we should be doing to make things better for families who are finding out that there's no security anymore in being middle-class than she is about actually being elected senator. If she happens to win, that's just icing on the cake for her.
Some Massachusetts observers are worried that voters won't be interested in Warren because she's not a "real" politician. But that's exactly why they will want her as their next senator. People LIKEthat she tried to stand up to Wall Street. Americans LIKE that she took Washington to task for bailing out investment bankers while allowing families to lose their homes. They LIKE that she doesn't back down when she thinks she's right, even when she's pressured by those of the same political party.
She's already taken a stand in Washington, D.C. that was so unpopular that the financial industry mounted an all-out campaign to keep her from running the watchdog agency she created. While I have no doubt that her personal feelings were probably hurt about that, Elizabeth Warren seems like a woman whose single-minded task is to do whatever she is capable of to turn the economic ship around for Americans who aren't wealthy and who aren't corporations. If she can't do it as head of the CFPB, then maybe she can do it as a senator from Massachusetts. If she doesn't get elected in Massachusetts, she'll do it in another way.
Warren is the "un"-candidate -- willing to speak her mind and say what she believes to be the truth, regardless of the political consequences. As she said on Morning Joe, one voice speaking the truth can turn into three voices, then five, and voices will keep growing, until enough of them are speaking the truth so that things will change.
Yup. She did.
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