'I Wasn't Born at Harvard': Elizabeth Warren Meets the Voters

[ProSense]

Jill Lawrence

'I Wasn't Born at Harvard': Elizabeth Warren Meets the Voters

Now running for the U.S. Senate, the consumer advocate conservatives love to hate turns out to have a deft touch on the stump

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- "Could we get a picture? Let's do a picture! I love doing pictures!" Elizabeth Warren exclaimed. It was Day One of her U.S. Senate campaign and about Minute Five of her visit to The Student Prince, a German bierhaus bedecked with thousands of beer mugs. And to my surprise, the bespectacled Harvard professor seemed in her element.

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Warren has no barn-coat, battered-truck "schtick," as one voter called Brown's everyman campaign persona. Nor does she plan to pose for a nude centerfold, as Brown did for Cosmopolitan while a young man. "I'm not competing there," she told me with a laugh.

But she will be competitive in ways that people may not expect. First, Warren seems to enjoy campaigning and demonstrates as much warmth and "relatability" as any seasoned pro on the trail. Hardly anyone went untouched of the dozens waiting to greet her at The Student Prince, the fifth and last stop of her announcement tour. I mean that literally -- she dispensed hugs and arm-pats to nearly everyone, clasped many hands with both of hers, and seems to have perfected the art of intense eye-contact, the kind that makes people think they are the only person in the room.

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As for Republicans who dismiss her as a liberal academic, "I grew up hanging on to the edge of the middle class by my fingernails," Warren said. "All I can say is I've been there. I've lived this. My family lived one pink slip, one bad diagnosis away from falling off the economic cliff. Yeah, I've got a fancy job at Harvard and I've gotta tell you, I'm proud of that job. I worked hard to get there. I wasn't born at Harvard. I was born to a family that had to work for everything it's got."

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[BeyondGeography]

1. Very exciting

:thumbsup:

[ClarkUSA]

2. 'After her father had a heart attack, "We lost our car. We almost lost a house," she told one man'

"She later told reporters that she was babysitting by age 9, waiting tables at 13, married at 19, a mother and elementary school teacher at 22."

I hope she wins next year and goes on to become the first female POTUS. She's got my support, both now and in the future.

[Whisp]

5. She certainly is Presidential material. n/t

[CTyankee]

18. "I rocked that baby!" she said of her babysitting for a colicky baby

when she was 9. She is so good. I think she has a good chance against Scott Brown.

[polichick]

3. Only Republimorons could paint going to Harvard as a bad thing...

It's stunning that we've gotten to this place in America!

[JNelson6563]

4. Unlike Yale and Skull & Bones.

"Republicmorons" is exactly right.

Julie

[PragmaticLiberal]

7. Going to Harvard is only a bad thing ....

when you're a Democrat...or even worse..a BLACK DEMOCRAT. :-(

[polmaven]

8. In my local newspaper's

on line version yesterday, a notorious winger commented that Brown is certainly much better than a "carpetbagger". i asked how long one has to live here (19 years for her now) before one stops being called a carpetbagger.

[BiggJawn]

9. It's like where I live. If you didn't go to Kindergarten with them

Then you're an "Outsider", even if you've lived here 30 years.

[glowing]

11. I would say anyone not born there is looked at a bit differently by natives,

however, if you can prove "worthy" of the natives, then its a non-issue. I'm assuming by the end of the summer it will be a non-issue.

[Mass]

15. They still call Kerry a carpetbagger, so what do you expect...

[karynnj]

16. It depends if you are a Republican or a Democrat

I was stunned when reading the Boston Globe's Boston travel guide written in 2004 before a trip to Boston. Speaking of the officials who lived in Boston, they mentioned that Kerry, who was not a native of Massachusetts, lived in Beacon Hill. In his case, he was born in Colorado because his dad, who was in the army was there. Both sides of his family had roots in MA and his family moved back to MA when he was a toddler.

Something tells me that they would not have done the same to Brown, who was born in Maine.

[snagglepuss]

6. K & R

[kwolf68]

10. Brilliant

Don't run from who you are..embrace it...be honest, be proud.

Elizabeth Warren is what this country needs.

[ibegurpard]

12. k&r

[progressoid]

13. Rec.

[Mass]

14. Talking about her modest orignis will not help against Brown.

So, it is good for her to make clear she is not another Kerry or Kennedy, but it would also be good that she starts showing what she stands for outside the domain of consumer advocate.

[66 dmhlt]

17. You go, girl!