Thread by @cmclymer

It was April 15, 2009, and I was watching The Daily Show (then hosted by Jon Stewart) along with everyone else who needed a dose of sanity in the early days of the Obama White House and GOP reactionary panic. His guest that night was a little-known Harvard Law professor. (thread)

The professor was Elizabeth Warren, at the time one of the three most cited scholars in bankruptcy and commercial law and the only tenured member of Harvard Law's faculty to have been taught a public law school and not really known to the larger public.

She was also Chair of the recently created Congressional Oversight Panel created to monitor and advise on the government's response to the 2008 Great Recession, including TARP, which is why she was there that night: to explain to folks what was going on and what was needed.

The interview did not start off well. Warren was not a politician. She was a scholar and an advocate, which to her, meant telling the truth about what she did and did not know. And she was frank about the latter. She was also really nervous. It wasn't a great look.

But after they taped the first part, Warren goes to leave, and Stewart asks her, as she writes in her autobiography: "You wanted to deliver an important message here, and you didn't get to it. If I gave you one sentence, what would you tell people?"

So, Stewart gives her another chance over the protestations of his stage director, and Warren takes a few deep breaths, settles herself, and what results is this IN TWO PARTS (my apologies for the misaligned audio, it's the best I could do):

PART TWO:

Aaron Sorkin, with the whole world of make-believe at his fingertips, has never written anything a fraction as compelling and insightful and galvanizing as Elizabeth Warren explaining the history and central problem of American capitalism in just two minutes flat.

Jon Stewart said that listening to Elizabeth Warren talk so saliently about this enormous problem that seemed impossibly complex was "like chicken soup for the financial soul". She effectively diagnosed the problem, explained how it was hurting us, and what we needed to do.

This interview--Warren's first big important national spot to a mainstream audience--characterizes her entire career within power structures. Initial skepticism of her abilities but a sense of something powerful if given a chance, followed by extraordinary follow-through.

This is how the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was created. Warren singlehandedly brought it into existence a year later with such verve that Republicans refused to entertain confirming her as its first director, convinced she would ACTUALLY protect consumers.

So, what did Elizabeth Warren do? She decided to run for the Senate.

Her opponent was GOP incumbent Scott Brown, who had become an overnight sensation with his 2010 special election victory: a charismatic, handsome moderate Republican winning in blue Massachusetts.

There were many doubters, of course, as it often goes with women who aren't afraid to take up space. It looked somewhat competitive, but most pundits gave Brown the edge. Warren was too radical. Because she just would not shut up about a fair economy, like this viral video:

Warren's argument construction that success in this country isn't built alone by one person and should mean paying it forward was so resonant that Obama used it during his reelection campaign.

Business special interests were not pleased. The political director for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said: "no other candidate in 2012 represents a greater threat to free enterprise than Professor Warren".

She refused to back off her message. She believed financial reform--a complete overhaul--was needed to protect the many from the few elites.

And on Election Day, she trounced Scott Brown, the only incumbent senator to lose in 2012.

Elizabeth Warren was the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts. She showed up to the Capitol, brand new, 98th in seniority out of 100. Did she take a break and feel things out? No, she went head-to-head with Ben Bernanke in her first Banking Committee hearing:

Apparently, she didn't get the memo that this isn't the way things are supposed to go down in the collegial atmosphere of the Senate, because she did it again weeks later, this time incredulous over Treasury's accountability over money laundering. Her final remark is amazing.

There are so many of these. You can get lost for hours watching Warren do this. Here's my favorite, from three years ago. She lays waste to the reasoning of then-CEO of Wells Fargo Timothy Sloan over their account fraud scandal. Full exchange is here:

This is Elizabeth Warren. This is who she is. She's a fighter. When confronted with a powerful and corrupt special interest, she doesn't blink. I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that, regardless of the issue, Warren would fight for me. And she would win. She gets things done.

When considering the whole "a candidate you can have a beer with versus the smartest candidate", I want the smartest person in the class. I want the girl who did her homework and keeps raising her hand because she has the answers. But the thing is... Warren is both of these.

She literally brought a regulatory federal agency into creation by sheer force of will, defeated a popular moderate Republican incumbent for the Senate, and then spent the next seven years holding special interests accountable and fighting for all of us, regardless of who we are.

Some candidates connect on a personal level. Some candidates are policy wonks. Some candidates are bare-knuckle fighters. There has never been a presidential candidate who encapsulated all three of these better than Elizabeth Warren.

I don't just think she can win. I *know* she can win. And not only can she win but she'll galvanize the party by making a compelling case to the American people, and she'll bring about the big, structural change needed to address the core of our problems, not just the symptoms.

We all need to get our family and friends and community out to the polls for Elizabeth Warren. If she can make it to the convention with a healthy showing, I guarantee she can unite the party and defeat Trump in November. Let's do this.

And donate here: bit.ly/2PIqGG9