Northam’s dissembling, perhaps more so than what he did as a young man, undermines his credibility to such an extent as to make him a lame duck barely a year into his tenure. Warren’s continued dishonesty, even in the manner in which she keeps apologizing in non sequitur fashion to obscure bad news from 33 years ago, similarly damages her credibility to the point where her presidential candidacy seems doomed before it launches.

If only that .098 to 3 percent of her, that part that gained her a job at Harvard Law and a recipe in Pow Wow Chow, could run for president, and that 97 to 99 percent of her that lies all the time would just go away, then maybe Warren could start her presidential run before it ends. Alas, voters evaluate the whole sum of an individual, rather than just those parts admired by Ivy League hiring committees that tend to deindividualize, prior to casting a ballot.

Long before she came to the Capitol, Elizabeth Warren went native. Her Washingtonspeak fibs told in self-serving fashion instead undermine her ultimate ambition.