Context:
(1) No bid contracts galore; stealth occupations along Af-Pak border and Colombia
(2) More bank bailouts; more exec. bonuses; more fees extracted from the public for withdrawing their own money
(3) Mandate to buy private insurance
(4) Nominal unemployment at 11.7% (really, ~ 21%); despite tax cuts for "small" "businesses" that "hire" people
(5) Crumbling infrastructure accelerates; no WPA-like jobs program to rebuild
(6) Reps. run on cultural platitudes (welfare queens in designer jeans), big gummint bad, and folksiness (as much as Romney can muster).
(7) Obama runs on "creative class" megalomania, collapsing any discontent into evidence of racism, parochialism, or being too "bitter" about things. Creative class swoons.
[8] Warren runs a campaign on a simple premise: "End the rent-seeking." Her platform includes:
(a) let the big banks fail, unguarantee that 22 trillion Obama/Bush guaranteed; build a network of local credit unions
(b) single-payer Medicare for All; mandatory maximum patient-doctor ratio for counties
(c) no more mercenaries; public defense as our one, true defense
(d) nationalize utilities
(e) universal education (detaching funding for K-12 from property taxes, free tuition to public universities for qualifying students, teachers academies, universal maximum of 20:1 student-teacher ratio, teacher salaries beginning at 40k or inflation-adjusted equivalent thereafter; universal one-year vocational training for those who do not attend college)
(f) simplify tax code: eliminate loopholes, credits, consumption taxes; add brackets to income taxes above the current top bracket; tax accumulated/corporate wealth at rates commensurate with or exceeding rates from labor-derived income [a 100 page tax code]
(g) publicly-financed campaigns for federal office
(h) permanent WPA-like program to rebuild and maintain infrastructure
(i) points to rent-seeking behavior of Ds & Rs: broken promises and vote beggars
(j) initially conciliatory to media; become more confrontational (e.g., "Who owns you?" to corporate media "journalists")
Obama Approval/Disapproval, Feb. 2012 - 36%/62%
Obama vs. Romney, February 2012
Romney - 36%
Obama - 36%
DK/Other - 28%
Warren/Flowers announce together, Mar. 2012
Romney - 35%
Obama - 34%
Warren - 21%
DK/Other - 10%
Warren/Flowers complete 50-state tour, Apr. 2012
Romney - 35%
Obama - 33%
Warren - 23%
DK/Other - 9%
20 Democrats in the House declare themselves as Independents, endorse Warren/Flowers, May 2012
Romney - 34%
Obama - 32%
Warren - 26%
DK/Other - 8%
50-State "Main St. over Wall St.: End the Rents" Lectures Begin, Faction of Tea Party membership endorses Warren/Flowers, June 2012
Romney - 33%
Obama - 31%
Warren - 29%
DK/Other - 7%
Five Senators (Dorgan, Byrd, Rockefeller, Whitehouse, Sanders) and 15 more House Members declare themselves as Independents and endorse Warren/Flowers; Hillary Clinton resigns from admn., does not endorse; July 2012
Warren - 33%
Romney - 32%
Obama - 29%
DK/Other - 6%
August 2012
Series of union endorsements; three more senators endorse Warren (Gillibrand, Tester, Inyoue); Biden makes remark some women just "push his buttons," to which Obama says he "just doesn't understand why some women are so upset with him." Obama also makes offhand comment about older Americans who have been "so scared of change." Romney continues to get hammered for flip-flopping on abortion. Warren continually points out that RomneyCare = ObamaCare = Insurance Bailouts.
Day before Dem. Convention - Hillary Clinton endorses Warren.
Dem. Convention - Phoenix
"Changing Hopes™: Brought to you by Golden Sacks, Pfizer, and Bank of America"
Interpretive Dances, Multicultural Parades, Warren = Palin, Romney = Racist
Warren - 35%
Romney - 32%
Obama - 28%
DK/Others - 5%
Sept. 2012
Rep. Convention - Salt Lake City
"No! We're the real hope that you can change!"
No more big gummint, more furdom, cowboys and indians reenactment, tea bags drop from ceiling instead of balloons
Warren - 38%
Romney - 31%
Obama - 27%
DK/Others - 4%
Oct. 2012
Warren/Flowers - Convention - Orlando
"End the Rents-Seeking"
Each night devote to two or three policies
1st: Permanent WPA/Infrastructure, Utilities
2nd: Education, Foreign Policy, Campaign Finance
3rd: Medicare for All, Banks, the Corporate-Bipartisan Symbiosis
Another 50-state tour, Coordinated independent congressional races (many write-ins endorsed by Warren-Flowers)
