Chad’s Morning Brief: Clinton Praises Warren, Is Rubio the Republicans Obama Type Candidate, and Other Top Stories
Here is your Morning Brief for April 17, 2015.
Clinton Praises Warren
According to The Hill, Hillary Clinton praised Elizabeth Warren as someone who holds peoples feet to the ground.
Praising Warren’s “unflagging determination to level the playing field for hardworking American families” and her goal of helping others “Share in the American Dream,” Clinton compared the senator to the “liberal lion,” the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass).
“It was always going to take a special kind of leader to pick up Ted Kennedy’s mantle as senior Senator from Massachusetts — champion of working families and scourge of special interests,” Clinton wrote in Warren’s entry for Time’s 100 Most Influential People.
“Elizabeth Warren never lets us forget that the work of taming Wall Street’s irresponsible risk taking and reforming our financial system is far from finished.”
Clinton also might have sent a veiled message to her critics in the “Warren wing” of the party, who are calling for a more progressive challenger to Clinton in the primary.
“She never hesitates to hold powerful people’s feet to the fire: bankers, lobbyists, senior government officials and, yes, even presidential aspirants.”
The kind words from Clinton could come back a haunt her if Warren changes her mind and jumps into the race. However, Clinton had to say something nice to Warren in order to begin courting the far left that still wants Warren to run.
Rubio the Republican Obama?
Matt Lewis has an article out on TheWeek.com asking if Republicans will seek their own type of Obama candidate in 2016.
Recently, some commentators (including yours truly) have compared Ted Cruz's announcement speech to Barack Obama's rhetorical style. Cruz and Obama do indeed have some things in common, including an ambition to seize the brass ring after 15 minutes in the Senate, a keen intellect, and an Ivy League pedigree. But Cruz's Texas style and penchant for hurling red meat to the base make him awfully dissimilar to the professorial Obama.
A much better model might be Marco Rubio. As both Politico and Hot Airpoint out, Rubio could best be seen as the Republicans' Obama. This comparison has zero to do with political philosophy. And no, it's not because Rubio's is also a first-term senator (he made a pretty compelling case to Kasie Hunt about why he has more experience than then-Sen. Obama did in 2008). It's really about style and temperament. Obama and Rubio both seem calm, reasonable, intellectual, professorial. They seem like they'd be more comfortable in a big cosmopolitan city than clearing brush on a Texas ranch. They're telegenic thinkers, not brash doers.
Now, do Republicans really need their own Obama in 2016? Maybe.
What if 2008 marked a somewhat permanent political shift in presidential elections — away from the rural, rustic machismo of the Bush era and toward a more sophisticated, cosmopolitan ideal for a leader? Could it be that Republicans can only win again by playing this game — by casting aside the tough Southern thing, the Bush "swagger" — and nominating a young-ish, cosmopolitan conservative?
If the country has changed this way, and the GOP needs its own Obama — a conservative who can appeal to minorities, urbanites, and millennials — they might well turn to a Marco Rubio, a Bobby Jindal, or possibly a Jeb Bush.
I get what Lewis getting at but still, I'd hate to be compared to Obama. Republicans will benefit from Rubio and Cruz though. Both are young energetic men and shatter the definition of Republicans that Democrats use.
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