U.S. presidential election (2): will Elizabeth Warren really run?
Haven’t we been here before? Eight years ago, it looked pretty certain that Hillary Clinton would win the Democratic primaries to become her party’s candidate in the US presidential election of 2008. Then along came Barack Obama, a former professor, a newly elected senator, a charismatic speaker, more radical than Hillary. And we all know what happened.
Now we stand on the verge of a new set of primaries to decide the candidates for the presidency in 2016. Again Hillary Clinton is the firm favourite to win the Democratic nomination. Again we have those in the party pushing an alternative: someone who is a former professor, a newly elected senator, a charismatic speaker, more radical than Hillary. The difference is that – so far – Elizabeth Warren has insisted she is not going to run.
In British politics, Warren would be mainstream Labour Party. But, in American politics, she is seen by some as a “dangerous radical” or “actually the devil”, as explained in this profile in Britain’s’s “Observer” newspaper.