The most important campaign news of the summer was Elizabeth Warren’s surge. Early in the year, her campaign was foundering. She was in fifth place, with a mere 6 percent support.

Now she is rising toward the top, with former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders. She’s drawing huge crowds — 15,000 in Seattle recently. She has the highest favorability rating of any candidate. If you ask Democrats whom they would vote for if they didn’t have to worry about electability, her support rises even more.

She’s achieved all this not with some ephemeral debate moment gimmick, but by campaigning well and being relatable, substantive and, yes, likable. Domenico Montanaro of NPR reports that she has taken 45,000 selfies with voters. That’s dedication.

She has also done one more thing. She has made sure that her policy views conform to progressive orthodoxy. This is an important transformation for Warren. When she emerged on the public stage she was a completely heterodox thinker, who deviated from the liberal mainstream with abandon.