Throughout it all, she’s provided key guidance to not just her caucus, but to outside progressives lobbying for a bailout that helps people, not corporate executives—the very people who are fond of privatizing profits, but socializing losses.

Apple isn’t asking for a handout. Apple has $245 billion in the bank. It saved for a rainy day, there was nothing stopping airlines from doing the same, instead of buying back stock to prop up their stock prices.

x .@ewarren is out with eight conditions she argues should be placed on any corporate bailout, including a $15 minimum wage and a three-year ban on dividends or executive bonuses. pic.twitter.com/7YBGekU3oA — Kevin Robillard (@Robillard) March 17, 2020

Compare her profile to that of the rest of the presidential field. Sen. Bernie Sanders is still only talking to his 30% via livestreams, and certainly hasn’t had any hand in crafting any element of the response. Former mayor Pete Buttigieg? Who knows, and he doesn’t have much of a perch anyway. Sen. Amy Klobuchar? Her whole schtick was “I work with Republicans to get stuff done.” I’m not seeing her name anywhere. Are you?

Joe Biden?

Seriously, where is Joe? Presumably fundraising. He needs money and never had much luck raising it from small-dollar donors. He needs to replenish for the general election. But that means that he’s a total non-factor in the national debate over 1) what to do to rescue our country from economic catastrophe, and 2) how are we going to hold Trump accountable for his actions that got us here.

There were reports on Friday that his campaign was working on getting him more involved in offering shadow commentary—an antidote to Trump’s daily “news” conferences full of dangerous lies and bullshit. Given that the cable networks are 24-7 coronavirus these days, the hunger for content is huge. Heck, NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo is becoming a star given his press conferences, why aren’t we, uh, making a star out of our actual nominee?

x On a call right now, @JoeBiden says he's in the process of finding a way to directly answer questions every day on camera. "I want to be in daily or at least significant contact with the American people and communicate what I would be doing and what I think we should be doing." — Jeff Zeleny (@jeffzeleny) March 20, 2020

“Finding a way...” Sheesh. This isn’t rocket science, but okay. They’re trying.

Just imagine how different things would’ve been if Warren was our presumptive nominee, with her depth of knowledge and expertise providing counter-programming to Trump’s lies. Instead, she’s back in the Senate, shaping legislation and Democratic demands. It’s something, I guess.

It really does bolster the Warren for VP argument, though.