Two related campaign stories from the weekend:
- Elizabeth Warren’s surrogates are arguing that Joe Biden’s attacks on Warren’s “elitism” are sexist; and
- Amy Klobuchar is complaining that Mayor Pete wouldn’t get a second look from anyone if he were female, given his skimpy resume.
Are these objections justified? In Biden’s case, I think you have to ask the following questions:
- Would Biden be making the same allegation if Warren were a male law professor from Harvard?
- Is Biden the first candidate to make the elitism argument?
It’s pretty clear to me that the answer to the first question is yes. For better or worse, Biden is engaged in working class identity politics here, and the elitism narrative works just as well if the target is a man. As to the second question, Klobuchar used similar lines about Warren during last month’s debate, and she can’t reasonably be accused of sexism. In my opinion, therefore, Warren’s complaint is opportunistic, whiny, and baseless.
On the Klobuchar/Mayor Pete front, Klobuchar may very well be right, but calling out the electorate, as opposed to a candidate, for being sexist is counterproductive. You can’t sell cars to customers by griping about their bad taste; you just have to find a way to work within the system and move on.