Elizabeth Warren Takes Out Obama's Wall Street Nominee for Treasury Post--She Says She's Not Running For President (PICTURE)

ver the weekend, Antonio Weiss asked not to be re-nominated for the job of Undersecretary of Domestic Finance at the Treasury Department. It was a major coup for the Senate Democrats who had opposed the nomination, led by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, eventually including one-fifth of the caucus.

At the same time, pollster Peter Hart wrangled a 12-person focus group in Colorado, and both John Dickerson and Dan Balz were there to record it. They left with similar takes: Voters (well, twelve of them) recoiled at the thought of Clinton and Bush families fighting for the presidency, and voters were fairly warm to Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Both Dickerson and Balz focused on the experience of Susan Howard, an independent who had voted Republican in 2008 and 2012, but who liked Warren. And both reported that Howard carried student loan debt with a bigger monthly payment than her rent.

“She was more defined on issues, as someone who people saw as fighting for them.” Peter Hart

Howard’s story goes a little bit further than that. As Hart said in an interview today, Howard is not a young college grad. She is 43. Her monthly student loan payment is $1300.

That stood out to Hart, he said, because “by and large Warren was not characterized in ideological terms. She was more defined on issues, as someone who people saw as fighting for them. A lot of times people glom on to what I call the ‘shiny object.’ You know: ‘Gee, that person’s interesting.’ Rand Paul fell into that category. With Warren, what was unique was that they had some sense of who she was, who she was against, and who she was fighting for.”

The voters who see Paul as “interesting” are paying close attention to the press. Politico dubbed him “the most interesting man in politics.” Time dubbed him, yes, “the most interesting man in politics.” Reason called Paul “the most interesting man in the Senate,” but it got there first, in 2011.

Warren, by contrast, is usually identified as part of “the left.” There’s a reason for that. Her loudest political supporters, like the MoveOn and Democracy for America leaders who have organized a “Draft Warren” presidential committee, are on the left. Her theoretical constituency in a presidential primary, as measured in polls: The left………….MOREHERE