Why Warren's honeymoon may be coming to an end

[bostonangler]

It’s an ironclad law of presidential primary politics: With increased success comes increased scrutiny. And it looks like Elizabeth Warren is about to get her turn in the hot seat.

After fumbling a Native American DNA test — a misstep that threatened to overshadow her nascent campaign — the Massachusetts senator went on to enjoy a months-long streak of positive press coverage. Her debate opponents mostly declined to attack her, choosing to target frontrunner former Vice President Joe Biden instead. As a result, Warren ticked up steadily in the polls, week after week; now she ranks second nationally in an average of recent polls, a bit ahead of fellow progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Yet there are signs the honeymoon may be ending. The first clue came during last week’s ABC News debate, during which Biden, Sen. Amy Klobuchar and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg all explicitly criticized Warren’s support for Medicare for All, claiming that it would cost too much, that it would raise taxes on the middle class, and that it would force people off their private insurance.

The more ominous development, however, is how Buttigieg in particular has decided to spend the week following the debate. Introducing his own health care proposal in a Thursday op-ed, Buttigieg took Warren and Sanders to task, by name, for wanting to “fli[p] a switch and kic[k] almost 160 million Americans off their private insurance, including 20 million seniors already choosing private plans within Medicare.”

Then he implied that Warren in particular was not being “honest and straightforward about the details” of how she would pay for her plan.

“Senator Warren is known for being straightforward and was extremely evasive when asked that question — and we have seen that repeatedly,” Buttigieg added Thursday in an interview with Jake Tapper. “People are used to Washington politicians not giving straight answers to simple questions. But at a time like this, on an issue this important, that’s exactly what we need.”

The “kicking people off private insurance” argument certainly has some purchase among Democratic primary voters, which is why Democrats running to Warren’s right keep pushing it. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll, for instance, found that 55 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents prefer to vote for a candidate who intends to build on the Affordable Care Act, while only 40 percent prefer to vote for a candidate who wants to replace the ACA with Medicare for All.

But the most interesting part of Buttigieg’s critique is the part about Warren’s character. On several occasions, Warren has refused, unlike Sanders, to say that she would raise taxes on middle-class Americans to pay for Medicare for All, insisting only that overall health care costs would go down with the elimination of premiums, copayments and deductibles.

At this point, it’s clear that Warren is trying to avoid handing Republicans a general-election sound bite on tax increases. In other words, she’s acting like a politician. But that’s the thing: Warren has built her brand on being a nonpolitician — a middle-class fighter who came to Washington to make “big, structural change.”

Buttigieg’s strategy here is simple. To have any chance of winning the nomination, he needs to overperform in Iowa, the first caucus state. Warren is leading or tied with Biden in the most recent polls; Buttigieg is hovering around third place. Warren voters and Buttigieg voters tend to overlap; they’re mostly college-educated and white. If he can “attack her strength” — in this case, her reputation as a no-holds-barred truth teller — perhaps he can sow some doubts, surprise people on caucus day and propel his campaign forward.

“I think it’s puzzling that, when everybody knows the answer to that question of whether her plan and Senator Sanders’ plan will raise middle-class taxes is yes, why you wouldn’t just say so, and then explain why you think that’s the better way forward,” Buttigieg told Tapper.

The big question now is twofold: Will other candidates follow Buttigieg’s lead and start to scrutinize not just Warren’s plans but also her character? And if so, how will Warren handle the new pressure?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/2020-vision-why-warrens-honeymoon-may-be-coming-to-an-end-210324287.html

 

I can't believe she made it this far... The dems have nothing right now and the repubs are losing polls... Maybe a third party hero could emerge.

B/A