Elizabeth Warren meta message

Elizabeth Warren:  "I have a plan for that."

Warren

She is creating a brand. 

Elizabeth Warren is putting herself out there with a consistent and vivid presentation of herself.  She is creating a memorable, differentiated political character.

She is the energetic woman who has a bunch of plans to shake things up.

I have seen Elizabeth Warren twice up close and in person, and several times on television, most recently in a MSNBC 51 minute Town Hall, hosted by Chris Hayes and held in Fort Wayne, Indiana. 

Here is what she did in all the events:

     1. She hammered on a theme and catch phrase: "I have a plan for that."  She is creating a slogan, doing it in the time-honored way of advertisers. Repetition, repetition. Politicians attempting to be presidential may feel diffident about such obvious and intentional sloganeering. She doesn't back off. She draws laughs for doing it. 

There are some messages built into that slogan. 

Click here to see the Town Hall

One is that she is not too proud to create a cheesy slogan, recognizing that politics in the Trump era is about marketing and she is as overt about that as is Trump, with his "lock her up" and "build the wall" chants.  She is communicating willingness to get down and dirty, and will not be "above the fray." Quite the opposite. She will go head to head with Trump in the slogan fight. His chants elicit nasty dislike of enemies; hers that she will make things better. 

Another is to distinguish herself from Sanders. Sanders has plans and indeed his plans on Medicare for All and free tuition at public colleges pushed Democrats to get on board or be defined as weak or corporate or too moderate. In getting to that role Sanders gained a image as a Big Thinker. He is an idealist. He may not have been effective as a legislative term leader, but he excited crowds with a comprehensive view of capitalism and wealth, and he cares enough to insist on explaining socialism.  

The difference is that she is projecting practicality. Her plans are as unlikely to be adopted as those of Sanders, but she is defining herself as a get-things-done person with supposedly implementable plans, rather than the spiritual leader of a cause. She doesn't say Sanders is a wild-eyed idealist, not at all, but she presents an opposite vibe.

     2. She is very high energy. Her voice moves up and down. She stresses words. The embedded message is that she is 69 now, would be 71 if elected, but she is not old. She is no deathbed Hillary. She isn't sleepy Joe. She appears more alive, more youthful, more stimulated than any other candidate other than Beto O'Rourke.

     3. She projects that she is absolutely earnest and sincere. She oozes empathy. She is really, genuinely indignant over injustice, really, genuinely cares about corruption in government, is heartsick over the way the system is rigged against regular people. Her manner is polar opposite to Trump's here. Trump projects being commanding, tough, willing to be cruel. She projects the power of righteous indignation.

     4. She is a change agent. She is no status quo apologist. Things are wrong in America, including the current president. People who are discontented have her as a spokesperson.

     5. She is no elitist. She has a genuine "log cabin" story. She is from Massachusetts and was a Harvard professor and is upper middle class. She could trigger working class resentment against their bosses, those professionals and coastal elites who thrive in the current system. She describes humble roots. Poor family. She was a "surprise" baby. Her mother worked minimum wage at Sears to support the family. She was too poor to pay college tuition. Her big aspiration was to be a teacher. She struggled without child care. She went to law school where it was cheap.

     Moreover, she uses plain-folk language. She refers to her "mama" and "daddy." She drops her "g" sometimes. She says we are "gonna" do things and we "gotta" do things.

     6. She is dead simple frank and direct, perhaps blotting out the Pocahontas-sneaky meme. She answers questions unusually briskly for a politician. Yes, Trump should be impeached. Yes, he obstructed justice. Yes, she used to be a Republican. Yes, big technology companies should be broken up. Yes, she used to color her hair brown, now it is blonde. She has nothing to hide.

Will it work for her?

Elizabeth Warren is creating something for voters to latch onto and remember about her. It separates her from Gillibrand and Klobuchar, fellow female senators. It is something other than skin color to separate her from Harris. She appears to be more practical than Sanders, more indignant and direct than Buttigieg, more of a change agent than "corporate" Biden or Booker, and better defined than Bullock or Bennet or Swalwell or Ryan or Moulton or Delaney or those people you can't remember.

She has a brand.