I am a big fan of the idea that university faculty can and should be politically active. One reason I voted for President Obama was his impressive academic record.
Less than a week ago. Harvard Law Profesor Elizabeth Warren launched her campaign for the democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts. As leader of the effort of President Obama to reform the banks. Professor Warren became the target of political ravaging by the Know Nothing Repricans in the US Congress. Now. an initial poll shows her running neck-and-neck with incumbent Republican Scott Brown.
The results come as a surprise to some. Academics are not supposed to make good candidates. .. I call that the academic stereotype. Earlier surveys showed the Republican truck riding tea part Ypopulist as a favorite of Mass voters. ( Boston radio station WBUR and Boston Globe/University of New Hampshire poll ). That was before Warren’s speech about economic fairness had been heard in the Commonwealth as a Massachusetts issue.
What those spinnmeister yokels do not understand is the power, the passion that comes of knowledge of facts. Warren’s passion for her area … consumer economics, is the right passion at the right time.
Knowledge and passion, a hard combo to beat!