http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/220619-warren-inches-away-from-obamaOctober 14, 2014, 06:00 am
Warren inches away from Obama
By Peter Schroeder
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is beginning to distance herself from President Obama amid increased speculation about what role she wants to play in 2016.
From charging that the president has “protected” Wall Street to voting against the administration’s strategy for arming the Syrian rebels, Warren is flashing an independent streak from her populist perch in the Democratic Party.
“What she’s trying to do is influence the debate. She is not somebody who is there to go along to get along,” said one financial industry lobbyist. “If you … want to be effective but you don’t want to run for president, then you do what she’s doing.”
Warren is in high demand as a campaign surrogate, and on Monday announced she would spend the final three weeks before the November election visiting some of the nation’s toughest Senate battlegrounds.
The campaign tour will take her to Colorado and Minnesota on behalf of her colleagues Sens. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and Al Franken (D-Minn.), and Iowa, where she’ll be looking to bolster the candidacy of four-term Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa).
“If doing everything we can for 22 days means we'll be able to spend the next two years pressing forward in our fight to give just a little bit of relief to single moms struggling on minimum wage, or to college students getting crushed with loans, or to women who just want access to birth control, then I'm ready for that fight,” Warren said.
Warren has already visited 15 states to campaign for Democratic Senate and gubernatorial candidates, raising her profile at a time when liberal groups are pleading with her to mount a challenge to Hillary Clinton in 2016.
The senator has repeatedly ruled out a presidential run. Close observers doubt that she would take on Clinton, but they say it’s clear that she’s using her soapbox to try and pull the Democratic Party in a new direction.
“A rising populist tide is sweeping the country, and Elizabeth Warren is the guiding light setting the example for others in the party,” said Laura Friedenbach, spokeswoman for the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. “Warren is right to call out the party's failures to take on Wall Street, and we need more leaders in Congress like Warren who aren't afraid to stand up on behalf of their constituents.”
The latest shot across the bow came over the weekend, when Warren told the liberal media outlet Salon that Obama and his team “protected” Wall Street from the repercussions of the financial crisis.
“He picked his economic team and when the going got tough, his economic team picked Wall Street,” Warren said. “They protected Wall Street. Not families who were losing their homes. Not people who lost their jobs. ... And it happened over and over and over.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Warren credited the president for backing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — her signature project before joining the Senate — and said the GOP’s policies are the real problem.
"Democrats have not done all that they should, but at least we’re out there fighting for the right things. We’re fighting and I think trying to pull in the right direction," she said.
Still, Warren is not shy of bucking the tide.
She was among just a handful of Democrats to vote against a bipartisan student loan compromise struck in the summer of 2013, arguing the government was profiting on the backs of struggling students.
Warren was also one of only 10 Democrats to oppose a government funding bill in September that gave Obama power to arm and train Syrian rebels, airing concerns about the U.S. getting involved in another Middle Eastern conflict.
Last fall, Warren was among a group of congressional Democrats who helped scuttle the possible nomination of Larry Summers to head the Federal Reserve.
But while she has broken with party leaders occasionally, Warren has not adopted the pose of outside agitator, instead campaigning and fundraising on behalf of Democratic candidates around the country.
Democrats are well aware of how potent Warren’s populist economic message can be with voters, and have embraced it with their “fair shot” agenda for the midterm elections.
Party leaders made Warren the face of one of Senate Democrats’ top priorities this year, giving her the lead on a bill that would let borrowers refinance for lower interest rates.
Observers say Warren’s outsized role for a freshman has already changed some of the calculus in the Senate, as members are wary of getting on the wrong side of one of her pet issues.
“It impacts how the Senate does things,” said the lobbyist. “Getting Elizabeth Warren on board is a very big deal. … You’ve got to check that box.”
