Warren's campaign flameout was, as they say, 'overdetermined': there are multiple reasons, each of which would have been sufficient in themselves, for why she lost, and lost so badly. So here's a fun list of them! 1/
1) Her lane was blocked. The obvious answer. Despite her claiming she wasn't going to run a "lane" primary campaign, the fact is that she was most closely identified w/a slightly more upscale version of the Bernie wing of the party, and, well, Bernie has most of that locked up.
This was most obvious during debates, where she went out of her way to 'hug' Sanders, even defending him against attacks. Most she could bring herself to do was mild criticism about Bernie's lack of substantive achievement. You see how well that strategy worked v. Trump in 2016.
Warren's remaining appeal? Upscale terminal-degree holding wonks who like to read the NYT over coffee and listen to "All Things Considered"? Pretty much, which is why she got a ton of earned media but few votes. The dogs just didn't like the dog food, as the old joke goes.
2.) The lying. No getting around it, the fact that she lied for years about being an American Indian, and clearly was using it to advance her professional profile as an academic (remember "Pow Wow Chow?") undercut her from the beginning.
You can be a teacherly wonk or a brazen Clinton/Trump-like DGAF liar. You can't be both simultaneously. The feeling like you were being scolded or taught a lesson by her (natural for a law professor) *really* rubbed ppl the wrong way given her record of serial prevarications.
3.) Terrible, indecisive campaign strategy. Some might put this under the "lying" category, but I don't, it was poorly thought-out political gyrations. She came into the race with a "I have a position paper for everything!" brand, and it's a decent enough brand. But then...
...she immediately sabotaged her brand w/hasty adoption of the M4A position. She was trying to take vote share from Bernie, but a.) she refused to acknowledge the cost of the plan (at least Bernie was like "I dunno, but it'll be expensive!") b.) she waffled on private insurance.
At that point she turned herself into a candidate without a home: you couldn't even really be sure *what* she believed. The Bernie/M4A types thought she was lying about her true positions, and the moderates considered a dangerous radical. Rock and a hard place.
5.) Finally, and this goes back to the "what if the dogs just don't like the dog food?" joke, but Warren exudes a deeply powerful lack of charisma. This one is subjective, obviously, but everything about her personal presentment (voice, tone, gesticulations) was "ugh" to many.
Now this is the point that the Jessica Valentis of the world would denounce as being "sexist." It's not -- it's realist. Politics is a selling game, and if you can't make the sale on a personal level, well, it's not like you can just fire the electorate and get a new one.
Besides, there were other female candidates in the race -- who didn't catch on for other reasons -- with plenty of charm and charisma. I found Klobuchar to be remarkably appealing on a personal, to name one, and that's despite her well-known habit of chucking binders at interns.
Anyway, RIP to Liz Warren 2020, and may they bury her campaign at Wounded Knee.
Addendum: this is a point worth addressing. The way Warren handled this actually proves my point. She had spent all the previous debates cozying up to Bernie and then suddenly dropped this bomb in the press once she realized her strategy wasn't working.
It was an absolutely terrible look for her for multiple reasons: 1) playing victim turns off voters immensely, it looks weak; 2) given how old the comments were, and that she'd been almost unctuous twd Bern up until then, it smacked of desperation.
Finally, and perhaps most fatally, it felt like calculated betrayal to Bernie supporters, which made them all that much more unreachable for her (and who were her only real chance). That's why the Chapo types use that "snake" emoji and hiss at her name. Real hard feelings there.
