Tom Steyer. Yes, Tom Steyer.

Tom Steyer could kick ass on Wall Street, and he knows where to kick.

He could be elected president, but he has a problem to fix.

He projects earnest virtue.  (He wants to do good.)

Wrong message. He first needs a message of strength. (He can drain the swamp.)

He has the scent of privilege and Wall Street all over him. He needs to make it a positive.

I have seen Tom Steyer twice in small group setting, and, of course, on TV. His TV ads are the same as the in-person Steyer;  look you in the eye; earnest sincere talk about issues, demonstrating active generous involvement in good causes. He drips sincerity. Some might find it unctuous. I don't. This is political theater, and grand gestures are easier to see. 

Not that many people notice yet, but Steyer is good at retail politics. He greets people well, he speaks well, he projects a uniform message between his words, manner, and biography. 

He has a brand: he is the philanthropist good guy.

Like every candidate, he starts his stump speech with an explanatory story:

     His mom taught prisoners, his dad was a lawyer who prosecuted Nazis at Nuremberg: they were models of service. Tom started an investment business with zero employees, and built it into a giant fortune. Now, he and his wife generously fund good progressive causes, including climate protection, increasing turnout of young voters, community banking, and impeaching Trump.

Problem: There is a big, unintended, unspoken body language message Steyer cannot avoid, and that Democratic voters can not see past, that this is a privileged white guy who made a boatload of money in a few years on Wall Street. He got really rich investing in companies where people like him got richer and regular people worked and barely stayed afloat. Sure he can give some away. Wealth trickled up. Put a guy like him in charge? Is this sarcasm? Get real.

Tom Steyer's career is the elephant in the room. 

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Fix: Steyer knows how to drain the swamp. It takes a thief. . . . Steyer cannot hide from his biography. His philanthropy keeps him in the public eye as a guy with money to give away. 

Steyer needs to explain that his making money is a superpower, not a disqualifier. 

His smarts is his qualifier.

Steyer understands how the corporate world organizes itself. He says in his stump speech it is to profit executives and stockholders to the detriment of the other stakeholders in the America's economy, including the workers, the environment, the customers, and the integrity of the political system. He spent 30 years making money by understanding this better than others.

His strength is that he actually knows how to drain the swamp. Steyer can say proudly, darn right he made a pile on Wall Street. He understood them and saw exactly how they rigged the system. 

He is an expert whistle blower. His parental influence story helps explain why his superpower is used for good, and he has a ten year track record of generosity and scars of criticism from corporate opponents showing that sincerity. 

Steyer does not want to destroy capitalism. That is the right spot politically, to the right of Bernie. Steyer's career gives him credibility to criticize corporations harshly in the manner of a skilled surgeon, not an ideologue, also the right spot politically. With the exception of Bernie, Steyer has the harshest criticism of corporations of all the candidates.

A credibility problem. Steyer has no credibility as one who would tax and regulate corporations until he acknowledges and embraces the fact that he knows corporate management all too well and that he is criticizing the industry he worked in. He can do this. It is both true and plausible.

Voters don't need yet another candidate who is a moral scold about the swamp, qualified by a record of virtue. Any Democrat can do that, and it is an over-crowded space already. 

Voters want a skilled warrior, not a preacher. They want that warrior to have heart. Steyer can be both.