Elizabeth Warren: Moderate's Messiah

Ok, that title's hyperbolic. But I'm truly excited about Elizabeth Warren getting involved in politics. I haven't been this fully behind a politician since Michael Bloomberg. I like smart, grounded, sensible politicians with a practical streak and specific policy positions, who don't doubletalk or push tribal (i.e. partisan) buttons, and who'd sooner choke than hew to talking points. The country faces pragmatic challenges, and we need pragmatic leaders

If you're a moderate like me, she's your gal. If you're a moderate conservative, whiplashed by your party's co-option by the extreme right, she's your's too. Same if you've never been entirely comfortable with the strident utopianism of the left, or its wishy-washy leadership skills. She's sensible and real, and, man, what a relief that is.

Her opponent in the Massachusetts Senate campaign, Scott Brown, is the darling of Wall Street, with a huge campaign war chest. So, even if you live nowhere near Massachusetts, she could use your help. We will, after all, need a helluva good president in 2016.

Naturally, Warren's being played as "anti-Wall Street" for proposing grievously needed reforms which all sensible Americans understand to be necessary (e.g., unbelievably, the voodoo-like derivatives market that caused this mess is thriving). But that's nonsense, much like calling the push to raise rich people's taxes by 4.6% to Clinton era rates "class warfare" is nonsense. To extremists, sensible moderation always seems extreme, but in Warren's case, the characterization won't stick; she's too eminently sensible and pragmatic to be painted as some sort of radical. I have most of my savings invested in the stock market, and I'm certainly not worried about her.

Unless you're a doctrinaire libertarian (here's why I'm not one anymore), I can't imagine that this 90 second video wouldn't seem like a breath of fresh air to you, and make you want to contribute a few bucks: