Warren, alone among the Democratic candidates, is betting voters, exhausted by an emotional, blustery president often seemingly uninterested in specifics, want someone whose strength is a mastery of detail and a meticulous road map for pitchfork-style change. While other Democratic hopefuls have offered isolated plans, Warren’s stand out for their number — and their sweeping aim of overhauling basic aspects of American life.
The risk is that these detailed initiatives may excite activists but not voters, fill the op-ed pages but not the front pages, and leave Warren with an effort that resembles a policy roadshow rather than a political campaign.
The approach plays to Warren’s strengths as a wonky former Harvard law professor who rose to prominence through her findings that corporations skew the rules to their benefit. It’s fitting for a woman who once considered launching what she called a Center for Middle Class Policy at the New York-based Roosevelt Institute, a liberal think tank, but instead decided to run for U.S. Senate.
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