Politics

Why The Media Won’t Give Up On Elizabeth Warren For President

Matt K. Lewis Senior Contributor
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Why does the media continue to ask Elizabeth Warren if she will run for president?

Theories abound. Until recently, she was using the present tense (“I am not running”), but she has finally said she isn’t going to run. This grammatical clarification doesn’t seem to have helped much.

Meanwhile, some observers suggest she’s “too smart to run for president” — that she can become the most powerful Democrat in the nation without running. Presumably the media is too focused on presidential politics to pick up on where the real power is…

Maybe. But I have my own theory as to why the media won’t stop bugging her. And the answer is simple: It’s because she should run.

Hillary has proven to be an imperfect candidate, and the rest of the Democratic “field” — to the extent it even exists — is anemic, at best.

Reporters watch other politicians spend their entire lives preparing for a chance like Warren has — hoping that something magic happens and you can catch the zeitgeist. And for most of them, it never happens. Most politicians are utterly ambitious, and one gets the sense that every U.S. senator spends hours each day just waiting to measure the Oval Office drapes. For most of them, it remains an elusive fantasy.

But now, for some reason, the stars have aligned. Elizabeth Warren’s message of progressive populism is hot right now. And she’s going to let the moment pass her by? If the press is incredulous, it’s only because they know enough to know she’s letting a golden opportunity pass her by.

That’s basically what I said Sunday on Fox News’ “Media Buzz.” Here’s a short clip:

(Check out the full video of our discussion about the Media’s Indiana culture war, too.)

Now, nobody’s going to coronate Warren; she’d still have an uphill fight. But these opportunities don’t come around every day. Barack Obama seized his moment in 2008 — and don’t forget, when he got in that race, Hillary Clinton seemed the inevitable nominee. Meanwhile, some have suggested that Chris Christie missed his moment in 2012 (the verdict is still out on that one).

It’s fun to make fun of the press for not taking “no” for an answer, but on this one, they kind of have a point. Journalists won’t quit asking Warren about running for president any time soon, and there’s a simple reasons for this: Her apparent decision boggles the mind.