Thread by @DaytimeDan

RANT: this is harsh & I don't mean to disrespect friends who like her, but I am SO frustrated with poor political work by @ewarren campaign that I'm not going to be upset if/when it ultimately has to suspend. Perhaps she limits Bernie (maybe), but here's why I'm so frustrated: 1/

We all KNEW Bernie was going to make the race about him, his "revolution," his signature economic/regulatory issues, and less about a contrast with Donald Trump. We knew that because he refused to join the Democratic Party after 2016, so he was never going to be a team player. 2/

This left an opening for someone who could speak fluently on those issues, but AS A DEMOCRAT, while still using it to specifically contrast with Donald Trump (it's his re-election race after all). Then expanding that message to combat hate, to appeal to better nature of swing 3/

voters, to make the moral case to Democrats. To actually BE the unity candidate she's now saying she is...building a campaign that included some progressive policies on taxation and corruption that she cares so much about, but with a strong moral Democratic case v. Trump. 4/

BE that unity candidate from the beginning...there was an opportunity. To capture it required elevating the discourse, making it about more than plans & speaking to a broad set of issues, with Trump the target in center of those issues.

And Warren had a national fan-base to 5/

launch & fund her into contention. It could have been a powerful thing.

Instead, here's what we had:

1) Almost NO talk of Donald Trump. If/when she mentioned him it was almost always in context of "we have to make this campaign more than about him." Sounds good, but it 6/

flies in the face of all history about how you beat an incumbent President.

2) Rather than a moral appeal to our better nature, a negative campaign that sold mugs with "billionaire's tears" on them, took out ads with billionaire's crying, and put them on financial cable 7/

news to prove some kind of point, but again, NOT about Donald Trump.

3) Messaged heavily around "I have a plan for that" but actually didn't have her own plan for the most important domestic issue - healthcare.

4) Did not prep for her run by cultivating real on-the-ground 8/

relationships with the black community or other minority groups, and instead believed that high-profile surrogates could protect her and substitute for authentic relationships.

5) Did nothing to come up with a response for her Native American identification controversy and 9/

prepare her for a general election when Trump has been telegraphing his attack for years.

6) Rather than persuade on the merits of her approach, attacked fellow Democrats for lacking ambition or failing to "think big" and, in worst case, telling one to run in GOP primary. 10/

7) Inconsistency: the candidate who wants to break up social media and punish people for spreading disinformation also laughed in the face of a fellow candidate who talked about Trump's Twitter account putting lives in danger.

8) An ill-conceived alliance w/Bernie & worse, 11/

praising him repeatedly while missing opportunity after opportunity to lift up other Democrats, most notably Hillary Clinton.

A year after 2016 election, when she KNEW she was planning on running, Warren called 2016 Dem primary rigged against Bernie. After Hillary there was 12/

a real opportunity for a woman to capture the nomination. Women crushed the GOP in '18 & so many acutely felt the loss of a woman so qualified for the job to a disgusting sexist pig like Trump in 2016, that LIFTING UP other women would have helped Warren .

Instead the one...13/

political figure she praised above all others was Bernie Sanders.

It's just so frustrating. Warren is someone who is clearly brilliant, has been smart about many aspects of this (including strong organization-building on the ground), but time after time kept missing obvious 13/

opportunities to demonstrate political skills required to beat Trump.

I tweeted this earlier, but the question she submitted in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump is a perfect example of why I find her so frustrating: nothing about Trump, the 14/

https://twitter.com/HeatherMonahan_/status/1223015709090942977

subject of the trial, but instead a confusing and vague question about the process and legitimacy of the Chief Justice. A swing and a whiff for someone running to be the nominee against Donald Trump.

We need to beat Trump. All our energy & messaging should be on that, and 15/

Warren has demonstrated for a year now an inability to articulate a concise and clear case against Trump.

I'm getting this off my chest now & then will focus on why we need to stop Bernie, but strategic positioning aside on what Warren may or may not do to limit his upside, 16/

I'm just over bad candidates doing bad political work.

Again, I'm sorry if this is harsh and I don't mean to disrespect my friends who have more affinity towards her than I do, but I genuinely believe she's run a poor campaign and missed a big opportunity.

Rant over. /end