Globe Rips Off Herald Edition

August 6, 2012

From Glen Johnson’s Boston Sunday Globe Political Intelligence column (headline: “Warren draws criticism over comment on Wall St. Support”):

Harvard Law School professor Elizabeth Warren, a proud champion of the middle class, nonetheless claimed support from the very same Wall Street crowd she so frequently targets for criticism.

“Every now and again, I meet with someone who’s been very successful on Wall Street, who says, ‘I want to support your campaign because I believe you will save capitalism,’ ” Warren said during an interview with the National Journal’s Jim O’Sullivan published July 29.

By Monday, the comment was pinging around the Internet and Twittersphere, accompanied by a fairly snarky reaction.

Pinging around the Internet and Twittersphere?

Seriously?

Warren’s quote was Page One of the Boston Herald last Tuesday, as the hardreading staff duly noted:

Elizabeth Warren Saves Capitalism Edition

U.S. Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren (D-Capital!) kicked off her Wall Street waltz with this quote in National Journal, according to Hillary Chabot in yesterday’s Boston Herald:

“Every now and again, I meet with someone who’s been very successful on Wall Street, who says, ‘I want to support your campaign because I believe you will save capitalism. I believe in capitalism, and I understand there have to be rules. And they have to be consistently enforced.’ ”

That earned Warren this front page photo in the feisty local tabloid:

 

More from Johnson’s piece:

That prompted Warren to backpedal . . . as she made a campaign stop in Somerville.

“I passed along a comment that was over the top, and it was silly for me to do so,” she told reporters. Warren repeated the statement to each question on the topic.

 

Old news, Glen – not to mention unattributed.

From IGTLTDT:

[Last Wednesday’s] Herald had not one, but two columns (conveniently side-by-side) whacking Warren for the walkback, among other things.

First up, Joe Battenfeld:

Warren’s cop-out may represent a turning point in her campaign, because it’s the first time she’s actually disavowed something in such record speed.

But don’t expect Warren to go all silly on us. She is still claiming American Indian heritage, and that she created “much of the intellectual foundation” for Occupy. And she still claims she’s the sheriff who cleaned up Wall Street, despite what a few “over the top” executives may say.

Next up, Howie Carr:

How does Granny Warren do it? I mean, do you know how much time it must take, saving capitalism and simultaneously providing the “intellectual foundations” of Occupy Wall Street, which wanted to destroy capitalism?

Talk about keeping balls in the air. She’s both an Indian and “Okie to her toes.”

C’mon, Globe editors – and Glen. Credit where credit’s due, eh?

 

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Elizabeth Warren’s China Sin-drome Edition

August 2, 2012

Earlier this week, U.S. Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren (D-Hardhat) released this TV commercial, which is getting heavy rotation of the local Olympics broadcast:

At the time, the spot received glancing mention in the Boston Globe, while  Garrett Quinn gave it a whack on boston.com:

In Elizabeth Warren’s new ad she trots out Tom Friedman’s favorite thing in the whole wide world: Chinese spending on infrastructure. Warren claims that we just don’t spend enough on infrastructure anymore and somehow that makes us inferior to them. The gushing over China by the likes of Warren and America’s just-do-something authoritarian of record, Friedman, is upsetting because it generally ignores the means of how they do things. People who love China tend to complain about the sausage making in our democratic system but they rarely criticize the bulldozing in the Chinese system.

Now along comes the Boston Herald editorial page, a little late to the party, but in high dudgeon to make up for it:

Warren’s China envy

Memo to Elizabeth Warren: How did China — one of the world’s most repressive regimes — get to be your role model? Explain.

The Democratic Senate candidate is airing a new TV ad in which she says, “We’ve got bridges and roads in need of repair and thousands of people in need of work. Why aren’t we rebuilding America? Our competitors are putting people to work, building a future. China invests 9 percent of its GDP in infrastructure. America? We’re at just 2.4 percent. We can do better.”

Well, of course, we could, but see here there’s this little thing called the rule of law, and the Constitution and all that other messy stuff that makes this nation the kind of place most of us would rather live in than China — potholes and all.

The editorial ends this way: “Warren’s ad also coincides with a new report that shows the federal deficit is higher today than at any time since the end of World War II and that for every second of 2011 the federal government spent $41,210 it didn’t have. Warren’s China envy notwithstanding, isn’t that enough?”

Rule of thumb: Never say we should emulate China, unless you’re talking about men’s gymnastics.

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Elizabeth Warren Saves Capitalism Edition

August 1, 2012

U.S. Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren (D-Capital!) kicked off her Wall Street waltz with this quote in National Journal, according to Hillary Chabot in yesterday’s Boston Herald:

“Every now and again, I meet with someone who’s been very successful on Wall Street, who says, ‘I want to support your campaign because I believe you will save capitalism. I believe in capitalism, and I understand there have to be rules. And they have to be consistently enforced.’ ”

That earned Warren this front page photo in the feisty local tabloid:

It also generated this moonwalk by Warren shortly thereafter, as the Herald reported in a follow-up:

“I passed along a comment that was over the top, and it was silly for me to do so,” she told the Herald at a Somerville campaign stop.

Ya think?

Then again, ya think the Herald would leave it at that?

You should live so long. The Herald had not one, but two columns today (conveniently side-by-side) whacking Warren for the walkback, among other things.

First up, Joe Battenfeld:

Warren’s cop-out may represent a turning point in her campaign, because it’s the first time she’s actually disavowed something in such record speed.

But don’t expect Warren to go all silly on us. She is still claiming American Indian heritage, and that she created “much of the intellectual foundation” for Occupy. And she still claims she’s the sheriff who cleaned up Wall Street, despite what a few “over the top” executives may say.

Next up, Howie Carr:

How does Granny Warren do it? I mean, do you know how much time it must take, saving capitalism and simultaneously providing the “intellectual foundations” of Occupy Wall Street, which wanted to destroy capitalism?

Talk about keeping balls in the air. She’s both an Indian and “Okie to her toes.”

Do we detect a pattern emerging here? Or is the Herald just running out of dead horses to beat?

You can choose “Both of the Above” if you like.

P.S. The Boston Globe, not surprisingly, hasn’t had a word to say about this matter.

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