Hillary Clinton Courts Elizabeth Warren

Associated press

Time magazine just released its 100 Most Influential People list, and the publication asked newly declared Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to write up the blurb on Senator Elizabeth Warren. To presidential election watchers, this was a delicious move. The two women are commonly set up by the media as leaders of rivaling factions of their party. (Clinton herself made Time’s list, too.) Clinton writes:

Elizabeth Warren never lets us forget that the work of taming Wall Street’s irresponsible risk taking and reforming our financial system is far from finished. And she never hesitates to hold powerful people’s feet to the fire: bankers, lobbyists, senior government officials and, yes, even presidential aspirants.

Clinton’s not kidding on that last part. Warren is a woman whom the New Republic once declared “Hillary’s Nightmare” on its cover. (Actually, that Being John Malkovich-inspired cover design is probably anyone’s worst nightmare, no matter the face it features.)

In recent interviews, Warren has withheld praise from Clinton, saying instead she’ll wait and see how presidential candidates address the issues that matter to her. Of course, it seems nothing will convince Warren to run for president (in case you planned on asking her six times.) Clinton seems fairly confident of that herself, otherwise she probably wouldn’t be writing so glowingly of her.

Warren has long been something of a Clinton antagonist. Back in the day, Warren’s book, The Two Income Trap, co-written with her daughter Amelia Warren Tyagi, painted a harsh picture of Clinton. Then a senator, Clinton reportedly changed her position on bankruptcy legislation to satisfy Wall Street donors. “As New York’s newest senator, however, it seems that Hillary Clinton could not afford such a principled position.”

Still, Warren’s not running for anything, and Clinton is, which means it falls to the latter woman to find some common ground and co-opt Warren’s supporters. Time magazine is just Clinton’s latest act of outreach. When the two appeared at a campaign rally for Martha Coakley last year, Clinton had similar words of praise for Warren. And if there’s more disagreement between these two in the next year or so, don’t expect to hear about it from Clinton.