What Warren's Backers Think About Her Meeting With Hillary Clinton
2/17/2015

For Warren's most vocal supporters, the self-appointed army raging for economic populism, the tête-à-tête was extremely encouraging.

On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that Senator Elizabeth Warren and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had met for a private meeting in December at Whitehaven, the Clintons' home in Washington, D.C. A Democratic source described the meeting as “cordial and productive.” Little else was revealed.

Some might have interpreted the report as a sign that Clinton was taking Warren under her wing. But for Warren's most vocal supporters, the self-appointed army raging for economic populism, the tête-à-tête meant just about the opposite. Ilya Sheyman, the executive director of MoveOn.org Political Action, which with Democracy for America launched the project Run Warren Run, sounded emboldened. "It's more evidence that Sen. Warren and progressives are driving the conversation within the Democratic Party,” he said, through a spokesman. “That's why we're eager for Elizabeth Warren to run for President, and any candidate would do well to speak to the issues she's led on -- like tackling income inequality, student debt, and taking on the big banks."

Erica Sagrans, who works as campaign manager for another pro-Warren endeavor, Ready for Warren, used the occasion to stress Warren's momentum. "Secretary Clinton's meeting with Senator Warren indicates that she is among a growing number of Democratic leaders who admire Warren's willingness to stand up to the big banks and special interests," Sagrans said, before jumping to the punchline. "This is why we’re calling on Warren to run for president in 2016."

...For pro-Warren groups, the cream rises. Tuesday morning, John Catsimatidis, a top Clinton donor, told Bloomberg TV that one of his staff members, an Iowa native, spoke recently with a friend who is the Democratic chairman of Iowa. He said, in Catsmatidis’s summation, “If the election was held today, [our] lady friend from Massachusetts would beat Hillary.”

For much of the 2008 Democratic presidential primary season, Clinton seemed sure to be the name on the ticket, but Barack Obama, little-known not long before, swooped in with unlikely rhetoric of luminous bipartisanship, and won. As the 2016 election approaches, Clinton again is the presumptive frontrunner, but she knows better than to think herself immune to a new, populist voice....

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-02-17/what-warren-s-backers-think-about-her-meeting-with-hillary-clinton