Dan Balz warns us not to over-interpret the results,”It is important to emphasize that this was simply one group of 12 people.” Naturally, we can’t draw many conclusions from what 12 people think about anything. But we are nonetheless invited to do precisely that. It appears that Elizabeth Warren has broken through!!
The two-hour session, moderated by Democratic pollster Peter Hart for the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, turned upside down much of the conversation about the coming presidential campaign, where Bush and Clinton occupy so much space.
Indeed, the participants from Aurora, Colorado described Jeb as a greedy clown and a joke. Hillary was called untrustworthy and “more of the same.” But they all seemed to like Senator Warren.
Quick impressions voiced about her were highly positive: “Passionate.” “Smart.” “Sincere.” “Knowledgeable.” “Intelligent.” “Capable.” One person said, “questionable.” That was as close to a negative reaction as she got in that round.
There were other signs that Warren, who has said repeatedly that she is not running for president in 2016, had caught the eyes and ears of people in the room. She was the popular choice as a next-door neighbor, seen as genuine and personable. Even one of the most conservative members of the group said this.
Several said that if they could pick from a long list of national politicians, they would prefer to have the chance to have a long conversation with Warren, describing her as both articulate and down to earth. “She’s a strong woman, and I’d like to sit down and pick her brain,” said Susan Brink, an independent who backed President Obama.
Howard, an independent who voted Republican in both 2012 and 2014, was among those who offered an admiring view of Warren. “If she ran, I think she could be the next president,” she said.
I’m ready to pretty much dismiss this entire article as another ridiculous exercise in using bad methodology to reach highly dubious conclusions. But, the one thing that I think is a significant finding is that these suburban Denver residents have actually heard of Warren and heard her message.
She is, after all, just one of a hundred senators, and she represents a state that is 1,900 miles away from Denver.
It’s encouraging that this focus group also liked Warren, both personally and her message. But they aren’t a valid sample size.
What matters is that Warren is succeeding in getting noticed at a time when people are tuning politics out more than ever.
