http://www.bu.edu/professorvoices/

Contact Bayles at 617-353-3484; bayles@bu.edu

Contact Berkovitz at 617-353-7724; tobetv@bu.edu; Twitter: @tobetv

Contact Carroll at 617-353-3493; carroll7@bu.edu; Twitter: @johncarroll_bu

The Senate candidacy of Elizabeth Warren offers liberals a revenge-fantasy movie script. If Warren were to become the junior senator from Massachusetts, she would return to Washington as a colleague of the Republicans who subjected Warren to rough handling at various hearings on the Obama administration’s plans for a consumer financial protection bureau. It would have made a great campaign clip if she had ended one of these hearings with the Schwarzeneggeresque statement: “I’ll be back.”

But Warren faces a tough road back to Washington. Although she is a darling of the Beltway media set, she is not a household name in Massachusetts. She would have to garner the attention and following in a primary campaign against at least seven other Democrats. And she will have to overcome GOP Sen. Scott Brown’s advantage as a popular incumbent. But anything is possible given the seesaw swing of Massachusetts voters who elected Republican Brown in a special election then re-elected the entire Massachusetts Democratic ticket in 2010.

Warren is an engaging personality and plain speaker. She comes across well on television and should thrive in debates with both her Democratic rivals and, if she makes it to the next level, against Brown. She also will have Doug Rubin, one of the state’s best Democratic operatives, in her corner. He engineered the successful gubernatorial election of then little known Deval Patrick.

Some Massachusetts Republicans have already attacked Warren’s egghead credentials as a Harvard professor. But running against Harvard in Massachusetts isn’t necessarily the right tact to take, and Warren doesn’t come across as a cerebrally distant liberal academic in the mode of Attorney General Martha Coakley, the loser to Brown in 2010.

Warren sounded more like a populist in her work for Obama on financial reform and her spirited criticism of Wall Street and the banking cabal. Running against those institutions may give her solid traction among Massachusetts independents. It could also be the chink in Brown’s armor. Brown has remained popular in Massachusetts by navigating the tightrope act of limited partisanship as a relatively independent Republican.

But the one area Brown has toed the party line has been his support of business. That may not go down well among voters with the economy still adrift, banks reluctant to loan the cache of money they are holding, and Wall Street wise guys still commanding huge salaries and tax breaks. Warren, with her command of the issues and her engaging personality, could marshal that anti-Big Business sentiment in a run against Brown.

But Warren will have to run hard. She needs both traditional name recognition and a social media buzz to overcome Brown’s advantages. That will mean non-stop, retail campaigning and a hefty war chest to finance a media blitz to introduce her to voters and make the case why Brown should come home and she should be sent to Washington.

Contact Bayles at 617-353-3484; bayles@bu.edu

Contact Whalen at 978-888-3131; tjw64@bu.edu or tjw64@comcast.net

Contact Carroll at 617-353-3493; carroll7@bu.edu; Twitter: @johncarroll_bu

Tobe Berkovitz, associate professor of advertising and an expert on media strategy and political advertising. He can be reached at 617-353-7724; tobetv@bu.edu; Twitter: @tobetv

John Carroll, assistant professor of mass communication and an expert on media criticism and political advertising. He can be reached at 617-353-3493; carroll7@bu.edu; Twitter: @johncarroll_bu

“There is no evidence that the U.S. is an over-spender on domestic programs. Its crumbling infrastructure, high child (and indeed overall) poverty rates testify to that fact. The obvious, compelling fact in understanding the deficit is that federal government revenues as a percentage of GDP are amazingly low not only by international but by U.S. historical standards.

“The repeated failure to address this fact pushes the President ever more into accepting, at least in part, GOP plans to slash government spending driven by an antipathy to ‘big government’ more than concern about the deficit. Add to this the fact that cuts in government programs are more immediately ‘job destroying’ than tax increases at a time of very high unemployment and the case for continuing to surrender the debate to the Republicans becomes dubious indeed.

“Taxing millionaires more is probably largely rhetoric but is at least a start.”

Contact Wilson at 617-353-2540; gkwilson@bu.edu

Graham Wilson, chair of the political science department and an expert on American politics. He is also the author of Only in America? American Politics in Comparative Politics. He can be reached at 617-523-2540; gkwilson@bu.edu.

Laurence Kotlikoff, professor of economics and an expert on macroeconomics and fiscal and monetary policy. He is the author of Jimmy Stewart is Dead: Ending the World’s Ongoing Financial Plague With Limited Purpose Banking. He is also a regular contributor to Bloomberg and served as senior economist on President Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisors. He can be reached at 617-353-4002; kotlikoff@bu.edu.

Tom Whalen, associate professor of social science and an expert on American politics and the American presidency. He can be reached at 978-888-3131; tjw64@comcast.net.

Tom Fiedler, Dean of the College of Communication and an expert on American politics and political reporting. He is the former executive editor of the Miami Herald and a regular contributor to PoliticoArena. He can be reached at 617-353-3488; tfiedler@bu.edu; Twitter: @BUCOMDEAN

Cornelius Hurley, director of the Center for Finance, Law & Policy and a former counsel to the Fed Board of Governors. He can be reached at 617-353-5427; ckhurley@bu.edu; Twitter: @ckhurley

Contact Bayles at 617-353-7736; fbayles@bu.edu