As often happens when you apply for another job, reports are circulating that Warren's tired of the one she has and wants out of the Senate. On Monday, someone floated her name for chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Speculation also focuses on a cabinet position in a Clinton administration, although the last time she sought a job that required confirmation, for the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, President Obama declined to submit her name because he didn't think she could get the votes.

In Massachusetts, Warren is not as popular as the Republican governor, Charlie Baker. She has nothing to show for her four years in the Senate, not one bill. She was considered for the job of Hillary Clinton's vice president, but was passed over.

W.C. Fields once remarked, "All in all, I'd rather be in Philadelphia." He could have been speaking for Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Ambitious Democratic congressmen, led by Seth Moulton and Joseph Kennedy III, are already stockpiling cash in the event Warren vacates her office or decides not to seek reelection.


Despite her uncertain future, the Democratic platform bears Warren's stamp more than Clinton's, from breaking up big banks and soaking the rich to attacking the corporate class, all issues she touched on in her convention speech. Although the night belonged to Bernie Sanders in what was probably his final public performance, make no mistake: This is Warren's party. Clinton just wants to rent it for the next eight years.

So where does Warren go from here?

The woman who once described herself as the "intellectual founder" of the Occupy Wall Street movement is now pledging to "put every ounce of energy" into electing Clinton, whose closeness to the financial industry makes this an odd pairing. Warren once accused Clinton of selling out to banking interests. Now she's stumping for her? It won't be the last indignity Warren has to suffer if Clinton wins.


But if Clinton loses, and Donald Trump becomes the next president, Democrats will be demoralized and the party in a shambles. Sanders is 74 and too old to run again. It's doubtful the party will turn to Clinton, or another centrist, once more. It will be a tear-down and rebuild project, not a remodel. Warren is the logical 2020 frontrunner.

Politics is full of ironies. One of them is that Warren's future lies in Clinton's defeat.

Eric Fehrnstrom is a Republican political analyst and media strategist, and was a senior adviser to Governor Mitt Romney.