Elizabeth Warren said, "Let me remind you, I think, I'm the only one running for president who's actually been on the executive side."

Did she "think" wrong?

The Washington Examiner points out that Bernie Sanders was mayor of Burlington, Vermont (long ago), Pete Buttigieg was mayor South Bend, Indiana, and Michael Bloomberg was that mayor of New York City.

But I think I know what she meant, and it's wrong in a different way than forgetting that Sanders, Buttigieg, and Bloomberg have been mayors and mayor is an executive position.

She meant I'm the only one running for president whose actually been on the executive side of the federal government.

The wrongness I'm seeing is the idea that government means national government. State and local government are invisible to the nationalist. For them, federalism is not a system of benefits and safeguards to the American people. The states and local governments might be useful as instruments of national power, carrying out mandates and handling the enforcement of federal norms. In this view, state and local government is subordinate and unimportant — not worth mentioning.

That, I suspect, is where Elizabeth Warren's mind was when she said she's the only one running for President who has actually been on the executive side. I'd like to know more about what Warren thinks about federalism. As a law professor, I was very used to hearing from law professors who dismissed federalism as outmoded at best and racist at worst.

IN THE COMMENTS: RichAndSceptical said, "And obviously Biden was [on the executive side] as VP." Which wrecks my interpretation.

ALSO: Remember when Barack Obama was first running for President and he argued that he had executive experience running Harvard Law Review and running his own campaign?