Is American Politics About to Repeat a West Wing Plot?

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. speaks to the Center for American Progressâs Second Annual Policy Conference in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

In the West Wing, if you've never seen it or need a refresher, Marin Sheen played President Jed Bartlett. Bartlett, a former two-term governor was best described as an idealistic pragmatist. He believed in the basic goodness of Americans and did his best to solve problems but was politically savvy and willing to compromise and picked his battles carefully.

Late in the series we met Matt Santos, a three-term congressman and relative newcomer to politics. Santos, played by Jimmy Smitz, was smart but less pragmatic. He wasn't unrealistic but was a member of the "if you're not playing to win, you might as well go home" camp. Santos did, in fact, go home before long time Bartlett aid Josh Lyman showed up to drag Santos back to Washington as a dark horse candidate for the Presidency.

Today more than 330 former Obama staffers sent a letter asking Elizabeth Warren to run for the Presidency. The letter begins with "we believed in an unlikely candidate who no one thought had a chance. We organized like no campaign had organized before -- and won the Democratic primary. We built a movement," referring to the early days of the Obama candidacy.

It's not quite the same thing. Obama was hardly a "Washington insider" when he ran for office. He was a State Senator in Illinois before running for the US Senate where he served for one term before running for president. However, his presidency has been similar to Bartlett's. Obama has picked his battles, he has compromised when possible and allowed his enemies to win a few.

Elizabeth Warren is, however, much more of an outsider than Obama. Warren was a university professor and advocate for consumer protection, especially in financial matters, before being elected to the Senate in 2012 and is now considering a run for the White House. Warren also seems to be in the "if you're not playing to win, you might as well go home" camp.

Currently the favorite for the White House is Hillary Clinton. The Republican favorite to challenge Clinton seems to change with the direction of the wind but, according to polling, most of them won't stand much of a chance against Clinton. Unfortunately, Hillary's campaign seems largely centered around the idea that it is her turn. Hillary has her fans but doesn't seem to generate the kind of enthusiasm that Obama did.

Warren on the other hand seems to have some rabid fans and is, as the letter from Obama staffers suggests, capable of building a movement.

We don't know what happened after Matt Santos was elected, because the series ended. Warren would have to start ad libbing shortly after taking office but I find the similarities interesting and something about repeating television plots instead of history seems so very, very American.

MORE ON HUFFPOST:

Elizabeth Warren

Introduces Financial Product Safety Commission(01 of08)

Elizabeth Warren announced a bill creating a Financial Product Safety Commission with House and Senate Democrats in March 2009. The body was designed to have oversight over mortgages and other financial instruments to protect consumers against predatory practices. She said if the agency had existed before the subprime collapse then "there would have been millions of families who got tangled in predatory mortgages who never would have gotten them." HuffPost's Ryan Grim reported:

Without all these toxic assets on banks' balance sheets, the institutions wouldn't be on the brink of collapse and the recession would be more manageable. "Consumer financial products were the front end of the destabilization of the American economic system."Sen. Charles Schumer's cosponsorship of the bill is notable because of his proximity to Wall Street. The bill's merit, the New York Democrat said, is that it regulates the actual financial product rather than the company producing it.

(credit:AP)

Geithner Opposes Her Heading CFPB(02 of08)

Tim Geithner expressed opposition to her nomination for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, reported HuffPost's Shahien Nasiripour. Geithner thought Warren's views on the big banks and Wall St. were too tough. Warren's oversight of the Treasury department as a watchdog for TARP apparently irked Geithner, agressively questioning him during Congressional hearings:

While her grilling of Geithner in September, over what members of Congress have called the "backdoor bailout" of Wall Street through AIG, inspired the "squirm" video, just last month Warren pressed Geithner on the administration's lackluster foreclosure-prevention plan, Making Home Affordable. Criticizing him for Treasury's failure to keep families in their homes, she questioned Treasury's commitment to homeowners.

(credit:AP)

Ready For A Fight(03 of08)

Elizabeth Warren reiterated her desire for a strong Consumer Financial Protection Agency to HuffPost's Shahien Nasiripour:

"My first choice is a strong consumer agency," the Harvard Law professor and federal bailout watchdog said in an interview with the Huffington Post. "My second choice is no agency at all and plenty of blood and teeth left on the floor."

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Named Interim Chief Of CFPB(04 of08)

In September of 2010, HuffPost's Ryan Grim reported that Elizabeth Warren was being considered as a candidate for interim director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Days later the announcement was official.The move allowed Warren to set up the groundwork for the agency immediately without risking a GOP filibuster of her nomination, a response that seemed certain giving the public opposition expressed by some Republican senators.When it came time to put forth an appointment for a longterm CFPB chief, Warren was overlooked, partially because she was seen as unfeasible, but also, HuffPost's Shahien Nasiripour reported, because she was a divisive figure within the Obama administration:

Ultimately, Warren wanted the job, allies said. And near-united opposition from Senate Republicans -- 44 of them signed a letter saying they'd oppose any nominee -- should have made it easier for Obama to nominate her, since the Republicans publicly said they wouldn't support anyone for the role.Instead, the Republicans made it easy for the White House to deflect questions about the administration's lack of support for Warren.Asked how she squared the administration's public statements with its private ones, Warren declined."I really have to say, I'm just not there. I'm not in the intricacies of the political part of this, and I can't comment," Warren said Monday. "The truth is I don't know anything about it."

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Chats With HuffPost About Bureau(05 of08)

In October 2010, shortly after being tasked with building the groundwork for the CFPB, Warren stopped by HuffPost to chat with Ryan Grim and Shahien Nasiripour"This is the first real agency we've built in the 21st century -- well, there's Homeland Security, but one for the people. And it means we ought to think differently," said Warren. "The government can talk to people and people can talk to the government differently than when the Consumer Product Safety Commission was built, or when the FDA was built. And if we do this right, that should change the whole dynamic of who this agency really is."HuffPost's Ryan Grim reported:

By gathering information, contracts and documents from homeowners and consumers, and allowing watchdog groups and individual concerned citizens access to those documents, the agency can exponentially expand the manpower it has to review the operations of banks and lenders. The goal would be to become aware of a particularly fraudulent practice before it is rampant and insulates itself in the financial services industry.

For full video of the interview, click here. (credit:Getty)

Announces Senate Run(06 of08)

Elizabeth Warren announced on September 14, 2011 that she was running for the United States Senate seat currently held by Scott Brown (R-Mass.)"After listening to people all across our state who know that we can do better, folks who are frustrated like I am that Washington just doesn't get it, I'm running for the Senate so I can fight every day for Massachusetts families," Warren wrote on The Huffington Post. (credit:AP)

Fundraising(07 of08)

One month into her campaign to secure the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Scott Brown in Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren raised $3.15 million, largely from small donations. According to a campaign email, 96 percent of donations were under $100. "These are pretty amazing numbers for our first official finance report, raised in a very short period of time," she said in an email to supporters.Warren's campaign has also attracted large liberal donors, including colleagues from Harvard and well-known liberal donors like George Soros, Barbra Streisand, and DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg.Warren raised an impressive $5.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2011. In early January, the candidate's money bomb pulled in more than $100,000 in just one weekend. (credit:AP)

Historic Agreement(08 of08)

Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) signed a pledge to curb third-party attack ads. If either campaign breaks the agreement, they would donate half the cost of the outside ad to a charity of their opponent's choice. "This may not work," Warren said in an email to supporters. "But there's enough at stake to make it worthwhile to try to take back this election." (credit:AP)

2016 election Barack Obama Elizabeth Warren news television

Is American Politics About to Repeat a West Wing Plot?

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