12 | POLITICO | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2019
WESTERVILLE, OHIO — Elizabeth
Warren has enjoyed many of the
trappings of a frontrunner: the
polling lead in Iowa and New
Hampshire, a near-tie with Joe
Biden nationally, explosive fund-
raising, big crowds. The only thing
missing was the scrutiny and snip-
ing from competitors that normally
accompanies the rise of a new pri-
mary leader.
That changed on Tuesday night
at Otterbein University, a small
college outside Columbus, Ohio.
Otterbein was named after the
founder of the United Brethren in
Christ, but the mood was anything
but brotherly as Warren faced a
barrage of criticisms from most of
the other 11 Democrats on stage.
The candidate who brags about
having a plan for everything was
pilloried for not detailing how she
would pay for her most expensive
proposal. She was accused — some-
times subtly, sometimes explicitly
— of being naive, dishonest, not ad-
equately respecting her colleagues’
ideas, tearing people down and
failing to enact major legislation.
She was attacked for believing in
policies that were “punitive” and
a theory of governing that was a
“pipe dream.”
Warren’s biggest gains have
come since the Sept. 12 debate in
Houston, so Tuesday’s debate was
the natural point for a more full-
throated engagement from the
other candidates. Until now, three
elements central to Warren’s candi-
dacy have received relatively little
pressure from her opponents as she
has slowly ticked up in the polls.
The first is whether the candidate
of always having a plan can escape
the question of the cost of “Medi-
care for All” that has haunted her
candidacy for months. The second
is the corollary character question
about whether her refusal to cough
up more details and numbers will
damage Warren’s robust approval
ratings. Finally, Warren has made
strides to convince Democrats
that she can beat Trump, but until
Tuesday she hasn’t had to answer
sustained attacks that her platform
is too far left to win.
She seemed to hold up relatively
well — no major slip-ups — but the
arguments her rivals made against
her are a harbinger of what’s to
come this fall, after a relatively
smooth ascent over the past sev-
eral months.
Warren is often credited with
running the most disciplined cam-
paign, and she was clearly prepared
for the evening’s offensive. Indeed,
her most persistent critic, Mayor
Pete Buttigieg, who has raised as
much money as Warren but has only
a fifth of the vote share to show for
it, has been signaling for weeks that
he would aggressively challenge her
in Ohio.
Through three hours of sporadic
attacks, Warren remained energetic
(some voters had to be surprised to
learn midway through the evening
that Warren is 70 years old), oc-
casionally cutting (“Medicare for
all who can afford it,” she called
Buttigieg’s plan), and unmoved
by her interlocutors’ insistence
that she confess to the true costs
of her health care plan. (A direct
question — “Will you raise taxes
on the middle class to pay for it?
Yes or no?” — was answered with
references to “my principles,” the
number of selfies she’s taken this
year and anecdotes about the in-dignities of the modern medical
system, but neither a yes or a no.)
The evening’s attacks began with
the issue that has dominated all
four Democratic primary debates —
in fact, the issue that has dominat-
ed Democratic politics since FDR:
how to achieve universal medical
insurance in the United States.
Unlike Bernie Sanders, the pro-
genitor of the Warren policy, the
Massachusetts senator has declined
to explain how she would pay forher plan to transition all Americans
into the popular Medicare program
that now serves only people 65 and
older. Her refusal to detail the costs
was turned into cudgel by Buttigieg
and others to question not just her
policy but her honesty.
“We heard it tonight,” said But-
tigieg when asked whether Warren
was “evasive.” “A yes or no ques-tion that didn’t get a yes or no an-
swer. Look, this is why people here
in the Midwest are so frustrated
with Washington in general and
Capitol Hill in particular. Your sig-
nature, senator, is to have a plan for
everything. Except this.”
When Sanders butted into the
conversation, it was as a foil that
Warren’s attackers could use. “I do
think it is appropriate to acknowl-
edge that taxes will go up,” said
Sanders, one of the few candidateswho declined to press Warren.
“Well, at least that’s a straight-
forward answer,” Buttigieg said.
“Bernie is being honest,” added
Sen. Amy Klobuchar. “We owe
it to the American people to tell
them where we will send the in-
voice.” Warren responded by try-
ing to explain that her life’s work
of studying “why hard-workingpeople go broke” convinced her that
only Medicare for All could address
spiraling health costs that bankrupt
Americans.
“I appreciate Elizabeth’s work,”
Klobuchar said wryly. “But, again,
the difference between a plan and a
pipe dream is something that you
can actually get done.”
When the discussion turned to
Warren’s wealth tax, candidates
seized on the same perceived vul-
nerabilities: She is too idealisticand too dismissive of other ways
to achieve the same goal. An-
drew Yang noted that a wealth tax
had been tried and abandoned in
Germany, France, Denmark and
Sweden.
Klobuchar seemed peeved that
Warren was too rigid in her policy
thinking. “I want to give a reality
check to Elizabeth,” she said. “No
one on this stage wants to protect
billionaires. Not even the billion-
aire” — Tom Steyer — “wants to
protect billionaires. We have dif-
ferent approaches. Your idea is not
the only idea.”
Beto O’Rourke leveled a new
criticism. “Sometimes Sen. Warren
is more about being punitive and
pitting some part of the country
against each other, instead of lifting
people up,” he said. (An incredu-
lous Warren retorted, “I’m really
shocked at the notion that anyone
thinks I’m punitive!”)
Much of the pile-on concerning
health care was not really about
the policy, but instead about War-
ren’s character. This is a familiar
script. In the fall of 2007, when
Barack Obama was struggling
to gain ground against Hillary
Clinton, his advisers told him he
would never win a white paper war
against a policy wonk like Clinton,
and he needed to turn the race to
a contest about character. That is
precisely what Obama did in Oc-
tober and November of that year,
when he subtly raised issues about
whether Clinton was honest. (Two
of the architects of that strategy,
Larry Grisolano and the Benen-
son Strategy Group, now work for
Buttigieg.)
There are obvious differences
between 2007 and 2019. Clinton’s
reputation had been battered dur-
ing her husband’s presidency, while
Warren’s favorability ratings are
strong. But still, the strategy is
familiar.
There were stretches Tuesday
night when Biden, the co-front-
runner, faded from the conversa-
tion as Klobuchar, Buttigieg and
O’Rourke engaged Warren. But in
the final hour the two leaders in the
race had a clash that was akin to an
after-credits scene of a superhero
movie that sets up the next film.
Biden bragged that he was the only
one on stage who has accomplished
major legislative achievements, a
claim that arguably has some merit.
Unsurprisingly, Warren pointed
to her work, before she was a sena-
tor, helping pass the Consumer Fi-
nancial Protection Bureau. Biden
was quick to add that he personally
rounded up votes for the legislation.
“I convinced people to vote for
it,” he insisted.
Warren refused to cede an inch
of credit to him for her signature
accomplishment.
“I am deeply grateful,” she said
slowly and with what may have
been a smirk, “to President Obama,
who fought so hard to make sure
that agency was passed into law.”
Biden grinned widely, seeming
to almost admire her ploy.
They both had reason to grin.
By the end of the night, things
were back to where they started:
with Biden and Warren on top.
But after months of Biden receiv-
ing the scrutiny and criticism of a
frontrunner, it’s now Warren being
chased by a pack of much more ag-
gressive rivals.BY RYAN LIZZA
Warren’s charmed campaign enters brutal new phase
Pile-on at the debate
made it clear things
are about to get rough
for the frontrunner
WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES
Through three hours of sporadic attacks at Tuesday’s debate, Elizabeth Warren remained energetic, occasionally
cutting and unmoved by her interlocutors’ insistence that she confess to the true costs of her health care plan.“Sometimes Sen. Warren is more about being punitive and pitting some
part of the country against each other, instead of lifting people up.”
— Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke