Having been thoroughly trounced by fellow far-leftist Bernie Sanders in every contest of the early primary season, faux Cherokee Elizabeth Warren seems to be forgetting how angry she was at Sanders only a few weeks ago over alleged misogynistic comments. Instead, she is now taking firm aim at the race’s newcomer, billionaire Mike Bloomberg.
And she’s using a time-tested political strategy to do so: short jokes.
“I want to talk specifically for just a minute at the top about a threat that is coming our way. And it’s a big threat,” Warren said. “Not a tall one, but a big one: Michael Bloomberg.”
Warren must have hired a Donald Trump speech writer. Bloomberg is said to be extremely sensitive about his vertical impairment, and the president has viciously gone after the former New York City mayor about it, naming him “Mini Mike.”
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“Mini Mike is a 5′4″ mass of dead energy who does not want to be on the debate stage with these professional politicians. No boxes please. He hates Crazy Bernie and will, with enough money, possibly stop him. Bernie’s people will go nuts!” the president tweeted on February 13.
You know that something is up with the Warren campaign if she’s reverting to tactics used by Trump. Having done so poorly in Iowa, Nevada, and particularly New Hampshire — a state that at one time she was expected to win — Warren may be finally acknowledging the writing on the wall, that Sanders, not her, is the “progressive” choice to run against Trump in 2020.
Warren’s shift from attacking Sanders to aggressively going after Bloomberg was first apparent on the debate stage in Nevada, where she and the other candidates took turns eviscerating the former New York City mayor.
Outwardly, Warren is still talking the talk about winning the nomination. “I’m not in this fight to talk about change. I’m in this fight to make change,” Warren told a Seattle crowd. “We have a lot of states to go, and right now I can feel the momentum.”
But any momentum that Warren feels is likely as imagined as her Native American ancestry. While Sanders has the wind at his sails, Warren is struggling to find the oars for her rowboat. The Warren campaign has trimmed back on advertising in states where she has no expectation of doing well. In Nevada and South Carolina, Warren cut ad buys by approximately half a million dollars.
Warren told reporters in New Hampshire, “I just always want to be careful about how we spend our money.”
Super Tuesday on March 3 will be key for Warren in her push to keep her campaign afloat. Fourteen states, including California, Texas, and Warren’s home state of Massachusetts will be choosing delegates on that day, and Warren’s performance in those states will likely make or break the Massachusetts senator’s campaign.
While Warren is expected to win Massachusetts, it will be the other large states that will ultimately decide her fate. Currently in California, the largest prize that day, Warren is running fourth behind Sanders and Biden and just slightly ahead of the high-spending Bloomberg.
Without an extremely strong showing on Super Tuesday, which is not expected, Warren’s campaign will be dead in the water, without the funds or the momentum to reasonably continue in the race.
And that may explain her shift to attacking Bloomberg instead of front-runner Sanders. Despite her attacks on him in January, Warren and Sanders have been mainly friendly throughout the years. A joining of their forces is the “progressive” wish moving forward, with Warren possibly even getting a vice-presidential nod on a Sanders’ ticket.
“I think that would be the dream of all progressives,” said “squad” member Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). “When you’re going into a battlefield, you want your best players to be on the field starting. And they’re our best.”
That possible future might just be the reason why Warren has shifted from attacking Sanders to attacking Bloomberg. Throwing her support behind Sanders would be a huge coup for the already surging Sanders.
And the thought-leaders of today’s Democrat Party — Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) would be getting exactly what they want — a completely socialist ticket for the presidential race.
Image of Elizabeth Warren: Screenshot of elizabethwarren.com
James Murphy is a freelance journalist who writes on a variety of subjects, with a primary focus on the ongoing anthropogenic climate-change hoax and cultural issues. He can be reached at [email protected]
