Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire has an interesting piece up this morning (paywall): Bernie’s Most Likely Running Mate should be Elizabeth Warren. The argument goes basically like this:
- Bernie will probably arrive at the convention with a plurality of delegates, but not a majority.
- Warren has made it clear she intends to continue to compete right up the convention, as long as she has the money to do so.
- Warren is one of the few Bernie rivals who can break the 15% threshold, so she will arrive at the convention with lots of delegates, possibly enough to put Bernie over the top.
- Warren and Bernie are pretty much in agreement on policy issues; the differences are more tactical than strategic.
- Warren dismembered Bloomberg in both debates, a skill that is especially useful in a running mate (at least before Trump, but then Warren is good at dismembering Trump too).
- And in summation,
But perhaps most importantly, Warren is the only candidate who can help Sanders inspire a massive turnout of liberals in the November election. That will be essential if Sanders has any real chance to beat Donald Trump.
There are a couple of weak spots in the argument, one being whether Warren can keep raising funds after Super Tuesday. (I’m donating some more to her today.) I had thought her age might be an argument against her, since she is also over 70, but her energy on the campaign trail has been second to none, and she shows no sign of slowing down.
Submitted for your consideration.
Edit: The title was wishing thinking (sigh). Fixed.