Tipsheet

Crockajawea To Take the Podium

Elizabeth Warren -- aka "Fauxcahontas" or "Crockajawea" -- is not going to be the Democrats' keynote speaker. That honor goes to Castro (no, no, that's San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, not the Cuban dictator!).  Instead, Warren will have a prime speaking slot on the night that Bill Clinton will address the convention.  

It seems pretty obvious that Warren was chosen to appeal to women. (Hey, double-billed with the guy Monica Lewinsky once called "The Big Jerk," one could argue that it's "Ladies' Night"!).  But what remains to be seen is what face she intends to put forward to the convention.

Clearly, Democrats are not going to be marketing her as a "diversity" pick (she's been to that rodeo -- or should we say powwow? -- before). What's not clear is whether she'll hearken back to her greatest hits -- she got hold of George Lakoff's "you didn't build this yourself" formulation before the President did -- or whether she will simply continue on her new theme, modestly presenting herself as the "Savior of Capitalism." 

Ultimately, however, the challenge Elizabeth Warren will face is the one confronting the Democratic Party as a whole: How to reach the middle class with business-friendly, free-market oratory while giving the hard left base of the Democratic party the kind of red-meat anti-business rhetoric they're craving.  It will be interesting to see how she threads the needle.