Yesterday, I attended a rally for Elizabeth Warren’s senatorial campaign at the Reggie Lewis Athletic Center. Below, are various thoughts on the style and substance of the rally as well as pictures of the event.

• ·         There was a long line to get into the Reggie Lewis Center (over 1000 people); Elizabeth Warren was at the end of the line and shook literally every person’s hand as they walked into Athletic Center. While in the grand scheme of things this is not a big gesture or deal by Warren, but in politics stuff like this really does matter. People want to like and relate to their elected leaders and little things like this can go a long way. One of the biggest flaws of the Martha Coakley campaign and strengths of Scott Brown’s campaign. For example, Coakley’s dismissive take on the idea of standing outside of Fenway during the Winter Classic shaking hands really haunted her and was used against her by her opponents who tried to portray her as out of touch with the average person. Go to this URL for an example of what I mean. http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/40653/elitist-coakley-takes-a-shot-at-fenway-park-fans/
• ·         While we were waiting for Warren to speak, they kept playing Coldplay songs; this might be an issue most people do not care about, but I find what songs candidates use to associate their candidacy with fascinating and this is my blog so I am going to comment on this mostly irrelevant matter.  I understand why they might play Coldplay since they are a very popular band, never swear, are not offensive, liberal, and never rock hard enough to the point where they might freak people out; however, I feel at a campaign event you want people to be kind of amped going in and Coldplay has kind of a sedating effect. At the end of the event they played Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” which was actually the theme song to John Kerry’s campaign in 2004. I don’t like when politicians rehash past campaign songs; especially when those songs are associated with losing campaigns. Thus, I my suggestion for Warren is to go with Florence and The Machine’s “The Dog Days Are Over” as a closing song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWOyfLBYtuU&ob=av3e Unlike Coldplay or Tom Petty the song has a souring anthem quality that gets people pumped up that the Coldplay and Petty tracks do not have; in addition, the chorus of “the dog days are over, the dog days are done” could fit symbolically with Warren’s efforts to end “The Dog Days” of our economy and Wall Street corruption. The only thing going against the song is that it is not an American group, but then again, neither is Coldplay.
• ·         Speaking of being “American”, Warren was smart to discuss a lot of her family’s history during her stump speech. Her opponents will most likely try to portray her as either someone un-American or kind of a carpetbagger since she did not grow up in MA. However, Warren pointing out that 3 of her brothers served in the military, that she had her first child at 22, having lived in MA over 20 years, and that her husband’s family is from MA, will help create a narrative that she is not some sort of elitist with no connection to the typical American experience.
• ·         She connect her life story to her vision and overall philosophy  well; pointing out the various opportunities that were granted to someone who was willing to work hard such as receiving loan forgiveness of some of her college loans since she worked as an educator. She also discussed how the deregulation of the last 30 years has created a unequal level of opportunity for people repeating the phrases like America is not working for hard working people and that we no longer invest in the middle class while giving examples of those types of investments in the past like the GI Bill and the creation of FDIC
• ·         One area where I thought she could of have been a little better was in discussing the her shaping of the creation of The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She told great anecdotes on how the Bureau came to be like a story of the Bureau’s inception being a conference call with 2 other people. However, I think she should spend a little more time on the purpose of the bureau, what it has achieved, and what it hopes to achieve. She did a little of this discussing protections and reforms for the credit card industry, but I know her opponents will try to paint the Bureau as a useless bureaucracy that inhibits job growth so she needs to hone in on how she will respond to those attacks with a lot of specifics.
• ·         It should be noted that Ayanna Pressley gave the opening remarks and introduction for Warren. Pressley is a rising star in Boston politics, recently garnered the most votes of any City Wide Counselor, and is seen by many as a potential future Mayoral candidate; learn more about her here: http://www.ayannapressley.com/meet-ayanna
• ·         It should be noted that the crowd yesterday was 90% white by my rough estimate even though the event was in Roxbury which is much more diverse. This should be a reminder to Warren, to both meaningful listen to minority communities and do more to bring her message to a diverse group of people; This is another area, where Coakley could have done more and really hurt her on election day as there was low voter turnout in predominantly black neighborhoods. This article from Talia Whyte articulates all of this better than I just did: http://www.thegrio.com/opinion/coakley-ignored-black-voters-at-her-own-peril.php