U. S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is risking membership in a political peanut gallery — the growing list of Massachusetts pols who tried and failed spectacularly in their bids to win the White House. Warren’s announcement of a 2020 presidential exploratory committee places her among four top state officials who angled at the Oval Office. Former Gov.<\/b>
\nU. S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is risking membership in a political peanut gallery \u2014 the growing list of Massachusetts pols who tried and failed spectacularly in their bids to win the White House.
Warren\u2019s announcement of a 2020 presidential exploratory committee places her among four top state officials who angled at the Oval Office.
Former Gov. Michael Dukakis was taken down by the late George H. W. Bush in 1988, with an assist from the Willie Horton ads targeting Dukakis\u2019 disastrous prison furlough policy and his own unforced error \u2014 allowing himself to be photographed in an oversized tank helmet.
Former U. S. Sen. John Kerry failed to take out George W. Bush in 2004 even as the increasingly unpopular Iraq war raged \u2014 failing to impress voters sufficiently with a theatrical \u201creporting for duty\u201d salute, then coming under fire from former Navy comrades who questioned his Vietnam service.
Former Gov. Mitt Romney failed twice \u2014 losing the 2008 GOP primary, and then as the nominee against President Barack Obama in 2012, famously coming under attack for his debate remark about \u201cbinders full of women\u201d job candidates, and also undercut by CNN moderator Candy Crowley\u2019s debate intervention on Obama\u2019s behalf on a question about the Benghazi attack.
The late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy took a stab at the White House in 1978, but \u2014 haunted by Chappaquiddick \u2014 lost to peanut farmer and former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter. His older brother John F. Kennedy was the last lifelong Massachusetts resident to win the White House in 1960 \u2014 though the elder Bush was born and attended boarding school here.
Former Gov. Deval Patrick preemptively took himself off the Bay State\u2019s White House wannabe list late last year, when he announced that he would not be running \u2014 amid widespread speculation that he wouldafter several years of coyly leaving the door open. Gov. Charlie Baker has been mentioned meanwhile as a potential anti- or post-Trump Republican \u2014 talk he has so far downplayed.<\/p>\n