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August 18, 2011

Elizabeth Warren Cowgirls Up

By Karrin Anderson

If you peruse the images on Elizabeth Warren’s newly created campaign Facebook page (or perhaps I should call it an exploratory committee FB page), you’ll see a lot of “cowgirling up.” Doesn’t seem like a go-to image for a 61-year-old female Harvard economist running for public office in  . . . Massachusetts. Additionally, the images she’s showcasing remind viewers of the last political battle she failed to win when President Obama chose former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that Warren took, as noted by the Wall Street Journal, “from concept to creation.”

Whereas Obama’s numbers are tanking, his snub of Warren seems to have made her even more popular with progressive voters. The controversy boosted her name recognition, and progressives who’ve had it with Obama relish the thought of reclaiming the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Scott Brown by (as the New York Times put it) “sending against him a woman who has won considerable acclaim and popularity among liberals for taking on the financial industry.”

But why the Western motif?

After Texan Rick Perry galloped away with Michelle Bachmann’s Iowa thunder, perhaps Warren realized that the “don’t mess with  . . .” message plays well above the Mason-Dixon line too. Richard Slotkin’s book Gunfighter Nation explains that the frontier myth has “broad appeal and persuasive power,”  in part because it is comprised of “a set of symbols that is apparently simple yet capable of varied and complex uses,” and because it “serves with equal facility the requirements of progressives and conservatives.”  And although the image of the lone cowboy is steeped in masculinity, the image is elastic enough to be deployed by female politicians (think Ann Richards and—to a lesser extent—Sarah Palin).

So, Warren has decided to roust her “posse” against the Massachusetts Republican incumbent rather than corporate criminals (not everyone sees a clear distinction between the two, of course). In proudly redeploying the images created for her campaign to head the CFPB, Warren paradoxically distances herself from the baggage of close ties to an unpopular Obama, suggesting that someday there could be a new Democratic sheriff in town.

– Karrin Anderson

(images: Elizabeth Warren Facebook page)

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  • BooksAlive

    A cowgirl, with no weapon in sight, she has only her badge to show authority. The heart-shaped hat atop a non-smiling face seems equally incongruous. She battled endlessly with congresscritters, and should have more success as a senator, if elected. But Warren can’t count on the Obama campaign to help – his track record of non-support of Democratic senatorial candidates frustrates me no end.

  • http://www.serr8d.blogspot.com/ Serr8d

    Maybe she’ll primary BHO. Someone, anyone, pretty please primary BHO? The guy has ‘community organized’ his way out of a job, I’m thinking.

    But, when that’s all you’ve ever done, and that’s all that you’re good at, what else could one expect ?

  • T Perky

    “she failed to win when President Obama chose former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau”

    Zombie lie won’t die, will it? She did not want the appointment. She said it back when she accepted the job of creating the Bureau, she said it when she praised the choice of Cordray, she’s said it over and over again. Why are you trying to paint her as a loser? I would love to have her in the Senate, wouldn’t you?

    “Warren paradoxically distances herself from the baggage of close ties
    to an unpopular Obama, suggesting that someday there could be a new
    Democratic sheriff in town.”

    The only paradox is your odd declaration that using a photo that strongly evokes a connection to Obama could somehow be construed as “distancing herself” from him. If she didn’t want the connection, why use the image at all?

    • jonst

      If possible, TPerky, could you please link to the statements from Warren saying she did not want the job.

  • psychohistorian

    Gag!  

    Destined for failure, unfortunately.  It would seem that attacking our problems at the margins gives us this sort of pap.

    Show me a prison sketch with a message that states “Lets put the real criminals in prison for keeps.”

    We would have plenty of room if we let out the 2-bit MJ users.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MTIPO5QKCXPJNWLQIAUAXRMX2U JOHN

    Ms. Warren did grow up in Oklahoma.  Maybe that’s where her cowgirl image originated. That Oklahoma cowboy image sure didn’t hurt Gene Autry or Will Rogers, and I see a lot of them in her. I know she went East Coast in her early twenties, but it’s hard to completely lose those formative years.  Better a real cowgirl than a drug store presidential cowboy—Perry.

    • marc sobel

      I agree, she is as much of a cowboy as W was.  More even, because in the words of the Singing Cowboy:”the only law is Right”  

      Bush of course thought that meant extreme right.  

  • http://www.bagnewsnotes.com Michael Shaw

    Approve.

  • T Perky

    Thanks, that was probably one of the articles that convinced me she didn’t feel burned by not being appointed. I’m not denying she would have been good, but even if she really wanted the job, she wasn’t going to publicly say she felt slighted; that’s bad form, and she’s not reckless. I don’t get the impression she’d be motivated by spite, either. Impatience, yes, which is why I like her so much. I’d much rather have someone of her caliber on my side in the Senate, so I’m thinking alls well that ends well.  

  • Hojo

    I wish Warren would stop being so nice when discussing widespread ethics-free and/or criminal behavior on Wall St. She should write a kick-ass book, and then make a kick-ass movie with Al Gore and Michael Moore. It would make her message un-ignorable. The Big Influential Forces want her sat on, and too much time has already gone by, when she should be heard. Can’t help thinking that putting the message out there in a strong way would do more good than being a senator or commissioner. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/George-Mokray/767686527 George Mokray

    Warren is indeed from OK and a World Series winning Red Sox team adopted “Cowboy up” as their slogan.  It carries some weight in MA, especially if she is willing to press the flesh down by Fenway, unlike Martha Coakley.  

    On the other hand, there are already a number of good candidates for the Dem Senate primary and I’m not sure that many of them are going to step aside politely to let Ms Warren get the nod.  If she wants it, she’s gonna have to cowgirl up even before she takes on Scott Brown, who’s pretty and got a truck.

  • Fahrender

    Well she’d better dump that Sheppard Fairey image with the President GQ motto. It’s so 2008/got cooties.

  • Fahrender

    Well she’d better dump that Sheppard Fairey image with the President GQ motto. It’s so 2008/got cooties.

  • oratorical animal

    The poster reworks the most famous image of President Obama and his campaign slogan. That is NOT distancing herself from Obama; that’s embracing him.

  • T Perky

    Well, I had a post that got eaten. I’ll try later. 

  • T Perky

    Well, I had a post that got eaten. I’ll try later. 

  • T Perky

    I don’t think I can post links, but there’s a WaPo article, in the Style section, fer pity’s sake, on Aug 13, 2010 by Brady Dennis that has some links and this blurb:

    [For her part, Warren has spent much of the summer outside of the public
    spotlight, declining interview requests and visiting family in
    California and Oklahoma.

    "I asked her point-blank, 'Do you want this grubby job or not? Why do
    you want this thing?' " her brother David Herring said. He said it was
    clear that if she were to end up leading the consumer bureau, it would
    be out of a sense of duty. ]

    At that time, it was assumed she was going to get the job though her main goal was just to get the thing started, she said in interviews on Maddow a couple times.  I think there was a Wall Street Journal op ed, but I couldn’t find it. The only obstacle was that her confirmation was sure to be blocked by the GOP in the Senate – remember the 60 vote rule for cloture? They could drag it out for months, right during the midterms and subsequent budget fight last xmas. The way I saw it, Obama did an end run around that garbage, appointed her a special adviser and got the ball rolling right away.

    While she may have had a slim hope to be confirmed before the election, there was none after, unfortunately, and the the new guy will face months of hearings and delays, but at least Warren got to design and build the bureau. She got what she wanted, and now she can get in the Senate and make sure the thing gets funded. From what I’ve seen, there are no burned bridges between her and Obama, which will, I think, be a big benefit to both of them. What’s done is done. I’m planning on sending her a few bucks, because I’d love to see her beat Brown.

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