GatewayRedbirds.com

Pro: she is a policy monster on middle and working class economic issues. Track record on that stuff is rock solid. She explains herself very clearly and articulately and actually does very well in debates and town halls. Connects with people very well when she gets their ear.

Con: the media isn't interested in serious people. Serious people don't make for good soundbites or shouting competitions on tv pundit panels. They won't talk about her because she doesn't help sell as many ads.

Good points, I think it also does not play to her advantage that she is genuinely sincere in a level-headed and thoughtful way. But that's a con of the general public more that Warren.

My views will always be biased by what I'm seeing happen here in the local scene...but another pro: Warren is the only candidate so far to actually sit down and meet with local activists in person. None of the others have done that yet, including Bernie. Bernie has a bunch of people here constantly texting me if I can go to some event or help them do X or Y, but they have yet to sit down and talk to activists, and ask what they can do for us. If this continues, I could see Warren causing a bigger fracture in Bernie's support than I would have guessed a month ago. She's won over lots of them already.

She's trending up. She's now third behind Biden and Sanders in most polls. Interestingly, a South Carolina poll ran three head-to-head polls this week.
Biden vs Sanders - Biden +55
Biden vs Pete - Biden +61
Biden vs Warren - Biden +52

As she gets her name out there, I think more and more voters will like what she has to say. Add this to a Pro for Warren: outside the lineage thing that she should have stayed away from, she seems averse to slip-ups on speech or policy. The more her message and her image are seen, the more she is liked. Kind of the opposite of candidates like Beto and Pete.

This is great news and I agree, people are going to come around on her and I think leaning into the Native American [expletive] up early was a good move, even though it cost her momentum. Not that she had much choice. I just think that by the time the primaries start in earnest, she's going to have a huge head start on coherent messaging and people will have forgiven or forgotten that mistake.

I think visibility will have the opposite effect on Biden, which is probably why he hasn't been out there nearly as much as you'd expect. The more he opens his mouth, the less people like him, and that's been the case his entire career, Obama coattail riding aside.

Am I optimistic?!

Yes, I think you're overlooking that Biden's favorables are very strong with both Dem and Rep voters. People who live on the internet don't like him, but outside that he's quite popular.

That's true. I'm way too online to have a clear understanding of who likes him. His early presidential runs were laughably disastrous, but that was before he got the VP shine for 8 years of wearing aviators and driving vintage corvettes to the white house.