Politico reports:

Liberals swooned. The Democratic establishment was on its heels. Powered by small donors and grassroots energy, in late 2003 Iowa seemed Howard Dean’s for the taking.

But then came the attacks — from both the center and the left. The surge became a stall. On caucus day, the Vermont governor came in third and never recovered.

Elizabeth Warren is trying to avoid the same fate.

While the Warren campaign has stuck to its corruption-centric message, it has noticeably shifted tactics in recent weeks. The Massachusetts senator changed her stump speech and is now taking many more audience questions. She’s drawing sharper contrasts with opponents after months of trying to stay above the fray. There are more big, thematic campaign speeches, and more off the record chats with reporters.

The third such speech in recent weeks came Tuesday in Boston at the Old South Meeting House, a key organizing place for the Boston Tea Party and American revolutionaries in the 18th century. Before a packed, diverse crowd of hundreds of supporters who stomped the ground and often interrupted with applause, Warren highlighted the work and poetry of Phillis Wheatley — a member of the Meeting House’s congregation. Wheatley was kidnapped from Africa and enslaved before becoming one of the first black women poets in America.

“She penned ideals of a better America….Her imagination is woven into the tapestry of America’s story,” Warren said of Wheatley, according to pre-released excerpts of the speech. Warren was introduced Tuesday by Rep. Ayanna Pressley, the Boston congresswoman and highest-profile black woman lawmaker who has endorsed the Massachusetts senator. [Continue reading…]