Wall St. Journal: Wall Street’s “Worst Nightmare” was Elected in Massachusetts

“in a nightmare scenario for Wall Street CEOs, Ms. Warren is a frontrunner to take a seat on the Senate Banking Committee”

Given how Wall Street crashed our economy, contributed to jaw-dropping American inequality and continue to act with impunity… one might just said, “Good.”

From Wall Street Journal – In Massachusetts, Ohio, California and elsewhere, the industry and its accompanying ideology were soundly beaten back. Candidates who built their resumes as industry scourges were able to leverage that experience to defeat opponents who they successfully labeled as too friendly to big financial interests.

Wall Street, as usual, spent an enormous amount of money—more than $400 million in 2012—and didn’t emerge with much to show for it.

The most obvious of the defeats came in Massachusetts, where Elizabeth Warren reclaimed the U.S. Senate seat once held by Edward Kennedy by beating Republican Scott Brown.

This was no fluke. Ms. Warren beat Mr. Brown handily, capturing 53.8% of the vote to Mr. Brown’s 46.2%, a margin bigger than any of the slew of last-minute polls suggested.

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Associated PressUntil 2008, Ms. Warren was a little-known, wonkish professor at Harvard who studied the economics of bankruptcy. But her appointment as a special Senate watchdog for the bank bailouts, her clashes with administration officials and the embrace of her Consumer Financial Protection Bureau catapulted her into the political limelight.

Mr. Brown, by contrast, was criticized for stalling and weakening key parts of the regulatory overhaul of Wall Street. It was an abrupt turnabout for a rising star in the party whose victory in a special election in early 2010 was a harbinger of the Republican surge to take the House later that year.

Now, in a nightmare scenario for Wall Street CEOs, Ms. Warren is a frontrunner to take a seat on the Senate Banking Committee.

Read the rest: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324073504578105433706996720.html

Post-Election Commentary Round-Up

ongoing – notes / reading after the big day!

NEEDHAM Votes, Precinct by Precint, Brown v Warren

Warren won all precincts except C, H.

What happened, C and H? 

Vote snapshots

Turnout, Machines, Grassroots

Warren’s Win

Brown’s Shortcomings

The Core of Liberalism: Opportunity for All, Not for Just Some

from huffpo – Elizabeth Warren won her campaign for Senate in Massachusetts by reaffirming the social contract and standing up for the “core of liberalism,” she told The Huffington Post Wednesday morning.

Warren, energized by her victory but running on precious little sleep, is rare among Democrats in her willingness to talk about economic policies in terms of core values, and to defend liberalism — even to use the dreaded term — rather than run from it. The message has struck a chord, not just among self-described liberals, but among independent voters who feel that the system is rigged against regular people. It has also made her a lightning rod for conservative anger, and earned her the hostility of Wall Street.

Strong liberals who have gone to the Senate in recent years, such as Minnesota’s Al Franken or New York’s Hillary Clinton, put their heads down and focused on the internal workings of the upper chamber, which can fully occupy a freshman senator’s time and largely remove him or her from the national conversation.

Warren, however, said she plans to continue making her case.

“The Senate should be a place to talk about the issues that are important to people’s lives. It’s just that straightforward,”

she said in her first one-on-one print interview after her victory.

The heart of Warren’s appeal is her insistence that politics is a contest of competing values. “We said this election is about whose side you’re on,” Warren said, summing up her campaign’s message.

“I think of this as an election where we stuck to our values: Make sure Social Security and Medicare benefits are protected, and millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share. To me, that’s the heart of it. That’s really where the basic social contract is reaffirmed. We said, ‘We’re gonna end subsidies for Big Oil and we’re gonna make sure there’s equal pay for equal work. Those were big issues here.

Or, at least, I talked about them all the time.”

Warren’s commitment to protect the social contract will be put immediately to the test, as President Barack Obama and congressional negotiators go to work crafting a bargain to avert the so-called fiscal cliff: the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, as well as automatic cuts to defense and social spending.

The election saw a wave of liberal victories that signals a shift in direction toward the core values Warren argues for.

In Maine, Minnesota and Maryland, voters for the first time approved marriage equality, which Warren said is part of liberalism’s promise of equal opportunity and dignity for all people.

“This election was about making sure the United States, the federal government, honors equal marriage. This election was about opportunity, not for some, but for all, and that’s the core of liberalism,” she said.

The Harvard law professor and consumer advocate had narrowly been favored in recent days, as polls showed her with a slight lead over the incumbent senator. Her ultimate eight-point win bordered on a landslide, and makes her the first woman elected to the Senate from Massachusetts.

Warren was the intellectual godmother of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and was its first head. She was denied a permanent appointment due to objections from within the Treasury Department and from congressional Republicans.

Asked her plan for the first day after her historic victory, she said she’s taking a moment to breathe. “I’m spending the day with family. Then I’m going to bed,” she said.

Read at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/07/elizabeth-warren_n_2088073.html

John Lewis: “She will never give up and never let you down”

From the Boston Herald – In a 400-year-old church at the center of Springfield, a wooden sanctuary that once ushered slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad, Elizabeth Warren was not merely endorsed, but blessed by an icon of America’s contemporary struggle for civil rights.

“I went to jail 40 times,” said Georgia’s veteran Congressman John Lewis. The man who almost died crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge with Martin Luther King Jr. nearly 50 years ago sounded more like the preacher he once longed to be. “I never gave up, and I never gave in,” he said as his voice swelled.

“And I believe with every fiber of my being that this woman, this smart, gifted woman will never give up, and will never let you down. She’s a fighter, a warrior,” Lewis said, as he turned to enfold Warren in a bear hug.

The capacity throng inside the Old First Church literally jumped out of the ancient wooden pews. There are routine campaign stops. And then there are inspired political events that have a vibe which seems to transcend even the smartest orchestration.

Rudy Giuliani munching a cannoli in Mike’s Pastry with U.S. Sen. Scott Brown is a photo op. What happened here yesterday inspired people to leave the church and fan out across Springfield, knocking on doors. That’s the difference.

Read more: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1061172242

 

Needham Letter: The Best Features of Your Best Teachers (Laurie Katz)

Don’t we all have a favorite teacher that we love to recall, that we credit with teaching us not only about the curriculum but something about ourselves? Many of Elizabeth Warren’s former students cite her as their favorite teacher, because she embodies the attributes of the best in that profession:

she is a person of high moral character, has thorough knowledge of her subject matter, makes clear her objectives, is a strong communicator, and is dedicated, passionate and inspiring.

Right from the start, Elizabeth Warren has communicated a consistent, hopeful message–her desire to fight for re-establishing a strong middle class which she asserts “is getting hammered.” She is articulate and knowledgeable about the history of the American middle class, in fact her study of bankruptcy in the mid-80’s led her to a career as a respected expert on middle class debt.
Warren’s dedication to the issue of consumer protection in Washington, D.C., and as Chair of the bipartisan Congressional Oversight Panel, demonstrate her ability to work with both Democrats and Republicans  to fix what is broken in government.
I am grateful that Elizabeth Warren seeks to bring her her passion and talents to the Senate, given what she knows about that climate of gridlock. She has run a positive campaign, and has stayed focused on the issues and the facts, even amid the distractions from a mulit-pronged negative campaign run by her opponent.
Of course while constantly attacking one of Warren’s greatest strengths, her admirable character, her opponent has shown us something unsettling about his own.

Elizabeth Warren has inspired me, and thousands of voters like me, because we believe that she has the heart for the fight and the intelligence to offer solutions. The qualities that have made Warren an exceptional teacher will serve her well as our next Senator from Massachusetts.

Please join me in voting for Elizabeth Warren on November 6.
Laurie Katz

Elizabeth and Joe Need You!

Email to Elizabeth Warren and Joe Kennedy supporters–needs for the last 9 days:

Team Needham, I have some numbers for you:

119 — Volunteers we need to spend 2 hours knocking supporters’ doors between now and the election.
96 — Volunteers we need to spend 2 hours calling supporters between now and the election.
10 — Days until the election.

Ways to get involved NOW:
Phone calls: Weekdays 5-9pm, Weekends 10am-9pm
Knock doors: Weekdays 4pm, Weekends 10am, 1pm, 4pm

How to help Nov. 5th:
Knock supporters’ doors: 10am, 1pm, 4pm
Call supporters: 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm
Door hangers: 8pm

How to help Election Day:
Poll watching: 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm
Door knocking: 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm
Calling: 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm

email me  to get signed up!
We need everyone for the final 10 days.

Let’s go win this for Joe and Elizabeth!
Rachael

P.S. Please take in your lawn signs in preparation for the upcoming storm– stay safe!