do you even know? Go get a cup of coffee.

That made no sense. I usually don't weigh in on stuff like this but I agree with your query. Cali...

but I felt like challenging him anyway.

She's fighting Brown on the issues.

What is greatest perceived strength? Oddly, I think it's his non-threatening, "moderate" mediocrity. People don't think of him as too extreme either way. The ongoing Republican attacks make people sick of what they call "partisan bickering" (which is largely ongoing Republican sabotage), and Brown gives their minds and emotions permission to sort of take a break. He was a nude model, he's handsome, he doesn't seem like a complete dumbass unlike other Republicans we know, but he doesn't challenge anyone too much either. Whew, mainstream voters say.

So how do we undermine this? How does one effectively undermine his image of non-threatening, easygoing, easy on the eyes moderation?

and I'm not sure how one fights Bartlett- who is without doubt the nastiness behind the nice guy facade. He is really a piece of work.

How about if she mentions what her main concerns and issues are, then mention that her opponent's main concern is her heritage.

"His concern with my heritage..." should become a recurring line.

He is concerned about my heritage. I'm concerned about jobs, the economy, etc.

Her first response should have been to own it, explain it, and move on. Too late for that, but it's not too late to put it behind and own a more important topic of conversation.

your words to Ms. Warren, with gratitude!!!

i will post back tonight .....

thank you, again!!

more tomorrow evening.

thank you very much, zazen!!

i will tell her where it came from, but since i hadn't asked first .... i apolgize for not doing that!!

please pm me if you would like me to correct that!!

running out now, though. more later

Excellent !!!

THANK YOU, MelungeonWoman!!!

outstanding

and heeds, your recommendation!! i am certain we will hear it more!!!

when i find the exact quote, i will post it, probably tomorrow.

THANK YOU, MelungeonWoman!!!

He is probably really good friends with Scott Brown.

Honestly, against the backdrop of war and an economy struggling just to move an inch forward, this is all they have to throw at Elizabeth Warren? There have to be a lot of low information voters before this kind of story will start damaging Elizabeth Warren. There can't possibly be that many voters who are so easily misled in Massachusetts.

and anyone underestimating Bartlett's capacity to damage Warren is woefully mistaken. I'm quite familiar with this pos, he was run out of Vermont for his slimy tactics.

If she had hit the streets and shook hands and actually met and talked with people the same way Bernie Sanders did in his campaign for Senate, Scott Brown would be nothing but a footnote in history. It was a huge clusterfuck.

They went up against terrible Democratic opponents who could out-boring a wet sponge, and they did it by acting like centrists the whole way.

Warren's a good candidate--she's smart, she's charismatic, and she's going to mop the floor with Scott Brown in the debates. Suffolk showed a 9-point swing away from Brown just a week or so ago, and that was AFTER all the shit in the Herald and the Globe about the Cherokee heritage flap.

warren can't prove she has any NA heritage, yet she claimed it on some official documents. that sounds dishonest. thus people mistrust.

It's a shame that President Obama won't be on the ballot in Wisconsin next week.

Dear soul that she is she is working to get our gal elected! I'll drop her an e-mail and ask her to weigh in on this, in case she has anything to add from the trenches.

Julie

Perhaps NoFuryLike could take that back to the campaign?

How about if she mentions what her main concerns and issues are, then mention that her opponent's main concern is her heritage.

"His concern with my heritage..." should become a recurring line.

Have already sent her an e-mail. She often doesn't go on-line til late in evening when her day is done so hopefully she'll stop in later and take a look.

NFL didn't have time to post before heading off to an Elizabeth Warren event but she did get my e-mail, followed the link to this thread and read your suggestion. She is going to make the suggestion! Apparently there is something else going on later she will also be attending so I think she's hoping to post with some news from in the trenches soon!

To those having busy political days in the real world! I'll be back at full steam righ twith you within a month!

Julie

great suggestion.

thank you so very much, sweet Julie!!

i will post back after!!

thank you for this thread!! it has informed and inspired me!!

thanks for all you're doing and good luck tomorrow in Springfield. I'm really hoping that DiFranco doesn't get the 15% and that Ms. Warren can focus solely on Brown.

What a big exciting day for you NFL! Rock on girl!

Hugs to you my dear friend!

Julie--who wishes she could be there

it was so amazing .... words fail me. more soon, my dear friend. i am going to post a tiny bit on this thread, for now. then sleep.

big

and gratitude

thank you so much, cali

rushing getting ready, but i have to chime in. this thread is extremely important to me!!

there is a meet and greet tonight, and i am bringing a note to Ms. Warren, saying:

How about if she mentions what her main concerns and issues are, then mention that her opponent's main concern is her heritage.

"His concern with my heritage..." should become a recurring line.

MelungeonWoman

72% of voters have said they don't think it's a serious issue and the 28% that do wouldn't touch Warren with a ten-foot pole anyway.

Every campaign has derp moments and this was one of hers. It happened in May, not October, so she was very lucky.

please read about Jim Barnett in the op.

If we spend our lives in fear of Rove's tactics we have already conceded every election to the GOP because after all, what's the point in fighting if they're just going to steal it?

Frankly, I think being in denial is silly, and that it's far better to be familiar with what one is up against.

feeling. I'm old and have seen LOTS of campaigns come and go, and I was not happy that she was still talking about this. My political instinct was that bringing it up again is exactly what Brown's campaign wants her to do: keep fanning the flames (however weak they are).

But then I had that sinking feeling with Dick Blumenthal, only to find that his support had bounced back and of course he won. But it is not really the same, since Dick was VERY well known as A.G. of CT.

As a supporter, I hope Warren just moves on and gets even stronger against Brown and his Wall St. backers. It is her strongest suit.

Why some people (Brown), (The Globe) are pushing this, is completely beyond me.

And why Warren's Native American background, or lack of such, has any importance in the senatorial contest is also beyond me.

A few years ago, we discovered that my children have some NA background (Nanticoke from MD). Just about as much background as Warren has. We were surprised, and pleased.

and I don't see how anyone can see that as anything but worrisome- particularly when people like Lynch are weighing in on the wrong side instead of supporting Warren.

He wants to be Senator.

This is the only way the GOP is able to win elections other than outright stealing them.

Denials, justifications, equivocations, excuses...these all fan the fire.

This is basic PR.

He lied his ass off about his background, yet they defended him. If it weren't for hypocrisy the right would have nothing.

But I don't think the Native American ancestory story will have any impact on the race - unless she keeps speaking about it in defensive terms. I do like her playing offense with it yesterday.

She's in trouble because she's in a race against a very well liked incumbant Senator who is currently airing commercials every 10 minutes not about himself, but about the local sports teams and playing off his "just one of the guys" routine.

She's in trouble because the state machine is not in her corner (yet?). She's in trouble because Menino and his machine are basically in Brown's corner or at least not going to help Warren.

She's in trouble because Massachusetts doesn't vote for women for state wide office (Governor, Senator - never) too often.

If she wins it's because Obama has a monster showing in some pockets.

Obama will carry Ma. by a landslide but too many Obama voters will also vote for Brown.

Turnout in key areas will decide this election.


----

I'm surprised the link drone hasn't bombed this thread yet with links to favorable polls

has always rubbed a fair few people the wrong way. Its been a divisive issue for decades now and this issue has brought up a nasty aftertaste about people who tried to game the system by trying to claim to be a minority so they could leapfrog over white applicants. The distaste for that system crossed many lines from liberals to conservatives and even within minority groups.

Personally I think its bullshit but it's troublesome for many.

So even if the issue does die away, it's left its mark unfortunately on Elizabeth Warren. Beyond that its an easy sound bite dammit, easy to regurgitate by the masses.

It's something the right wing will try to make a stink about it but no one will care.

She would be so great!

the less focus on issues. and that is not a good thing.

I think if Kerry would have done the same thing with the Swift Boats it might have a different outcome.

Honestly, Massachusetts is a state I'm not worried about. The polls are too early and Warren is NOT the official democratic candidate for US Senate. That vote is on September 6th. Closer to the election I think we'll see whatever democratic candidate that wins the primary (which yes, will probably be Warren). This is a very blue state and a presidential election year. The democrat, no matter who the candidate is,will win by 10+

Only 10+? Why not 99+?

Yes, MA is blue. I'm very familiar with its politics, but Brown is well liked and he's a sitting Senator with a campaign manager who knows every dirty trick in the book.

Her mother told her that her great great great grandmother was Cherokee.

Elizabeth believes what her mother told her.

What's the problem?

My mother told me my great great great grandmother was from Central Russia.

Should I not believe her?

the problem is that it's virtually all that's being talked about in the campaign.

It wouldn't take much to make it seem like Brown's argument is that you can't vote for someone who isn't racially pure.

They are gnawing on the story like a dog on a bone, all the while stating that the majority of people polled believe this is a non-issue. Well, when the Globe, Channel 5, and some others are through, those polls will reverse.

during her first senatorial campaign. She overcame this brilliantly ("it's not about where I'm from, it's about what I'm for", or something like that), and I hope Warren can do the same.

Warren's mom told her that they'd eloped because of her dad's family objections to her mom's Native American heritage.

The Breitbrats have found the wedding certificate, and it shows her parents were married in a church building in Holdensville, OK, 14 miles from their hometown of Wetumpka. Holdensville is the county seat, but the Breitbartafarts insist that this proves the two couldn't have eloped because shut up, that's why.

stupid shits.

Crazymakers making crazy.

might be forgotten or irrelevant by November.

thrillingly optimistic!!!
from the organizers who brought us "the greatest GOTV effort in Massachusetts political history" last general election, we heard glowing positivity!!
we must keep in there getting out that vote!!
tomorrow, after the convention, we go immediately out canvassing and phone-banking!


i gave Ms. Warren the note, but i did not get to see her open and read it. she was MOBBED by supporters!!! we will know if she takes MelungeonWoman's outstanding suggestion to heart when we hear her saying it in the media

more soon .... sleep then off to convention!!

thank you ALL!!!!

have a wonderful convention! wishing you guys all the luck in the world for some great PR.

Lots of my relatives seem to have had the same experience. One of my Aunts said once that if everyone who claimed Cherokee heritage were speaking the truth, the Trail of Tears would have had to start with 400,000 people.

For the most part, I don't fault Warren. We are pretty much who our parents tell us we are unless we choose to verify what we're told. Her having been born in OKC gives her cover as it's only a few hours from Tahlequah, where the reservation is. It's quite possible for her to have had a mixed marriage somewhere on her family tree. That's how it worked for me.

My born-on-the-res Grandfather (may the Great Spirit rest his Soul) married a woman from Locust Grove who was as white-as-the-driven-snow when he got home from WWII in 1946. They met as kids somewhere along the Illinois River. I was with the two of them once in a fishing boat and He pointed out to me the exact place they met. At that time in OK it was as much of an interracial marriage as any other so they moved to OKC where it wasn't as much of an issue and then to CA where no one gave them a second glance most times.

My only problem with this is that if you ever plan to run for office, you should know better than to make claims you can't back up.

To me she's just another white person who says "I'm part Cherokee", and it wouldn't affect my vote one way or the other.

She does seem like just another white person who claims some distant native heritage. There's nothing wrong with doing that. But BENEFITING from that will bother other white people who think she was faking/playing it up in order to advance her career.

I have something similar in my own family. Apparently one of my great-great grandmothers on my mother's side was Jewish. This woman lived and died in Germany and never set foot in the US. But I'm not going to go around claiming Jewish heritage, because it's a pretty distant thing and really has very little to do with my life or identity now. I think it's interesting that such heritage is there, but it's not something I'm going to focus on because it's just one small piece of my larger identity mosaic.

I don't fault Warren for doing what she did. I once dated a woman who had a similar tenuous connection with Latino heritage. And she made sure to mark 'Latino' on her college and job applications. While her claim was pretty distant, that's how the game is played nowadays. That box can make the difference and I don't fault people who use it. But many others would fault them.

It's a give and take. Warren probably benefited from what she did and now it might come back to bite her in the ass. That's how the world works. Very few things in life are free.

really, of all things to vote on THIS ?

election now!!!

she opened the day with front page news that she was up two points on brown. with word of a pundit that coming through that crap he - and defranco, by the way - dished even tied with him was a STRONG SIGN!! and then,

Elizabeth Warren GLOWED!!!

it was beyond description - at least, till i sleep off some of this emotional exhaustion ....

BUT she DID use MelungeonWoman's quote almost exactly!!! i will find her exact words and post them, asap.

wow, ah?!

THANK YOU, CALI!! THANK YOU, ALL!!