Keller @ Large: Why Sen. Warren Shouldn't Run For President
BOSTON (CBS) - Here we go again with yet another round of speculation about a possible run for president in 2020 by Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
The latest outbreak was prompted by a Suffolk University poll showing her topping the likes of Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders in a potential New Hampshire primary matchup.
But before you sink the mortgage into the six-to-one odds on Warren online, consider a few reasons why a Warren presidential run might not be such a good idea.
As the Republican Senate candidates will be quick to remind you, a Warren presidential campaign would add her to the string of Massachusetts pols who ran on the promise of serving us while privately nursing their Potomac fever. As one of them, State Rep. Geoff Diehl puts it: "She is purely looking to run for president in 2020, and I don't think people in Massachusetts appreciate somebody using their state as a springboard for higher office."
And that fatigue with ambitious Massachusetts pols may well resonate beyond our borders among the same voters who balked at the Dukakis, Kerry and Romney candidacies.
Another problem: Warren's calling card is a blunt critique of economic inequality. But if the economy keeps surging as it has been, those issues might not be so potent come 2020.
Sen. Warren has been saying for some time that "I am not running for president in 2020," which leaves open the possibility that she might change course in the future. While other candidates like Barack Obama and Bill Clinton have navigated that nuance in the past, a flip-flop on her "pledge" could do some damage to Warren's self-branding as a truth-teller in an era of rampant political dishonesty.
Polls this far out in NH mean little, especially when potential candidates from neighboring states have a built-in name-recognition edge. And while by next year the country might be open to a blunt-talking, left-leaning former Harvard Law professor from Cambridge to lead them out of the Trump era, I'll believe it when I see it.
