By Thomas B. Edsall (Mr. Edsall contributes a weekly column from Washington, D.C. on politics, demographics and inequality.)
The advent of Beto O’Rourke’s presidential candidacy has Democrats arguing ferociously among themselves.
First of all…who is Thomas B. Edsall?
From Wikipedia:
Thomas Byrne Edsall (born August 22, 1941) is an American journalist, Joseph Pulitzer II and Edith Pulitzer Moore Professor, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, 2006-2014; adjunct professor 2014-2017, Columbia University School of Journalism in New York City.[1] He is best known for his weekly opinion column for The New York Times online[2] and for his 25 years covering national politics for the Washington Post.[3]
Ok.
We’ve got that!!!
He is a white (There’s a photo on the article) male in his mid-70s, and he has worked in high-level establishment media and and academic circles for the last 25+ plus years. He made his bones as an “establishment” pundit with the Washington Post, a longtime newspaper of record…also a mouthpiece for the CIA/longtime CIA asset (since the ’50s) and is now owned by Jeff Bezos, who has among other things has been granted a $600 million dollar tech/info/cloud contract with the CIA that was challenged in court by other bidders…they lost…because the Bezos/Amazon bid was quite a bit higher than theirs. (Who would’a thunk that!!!) Like the Mafia, the CIA does not often give up a controlling interest in a valuable asset. Instead…also like the Mafia…it just changes frontmen. Jeff Bezos is just Steve Wynn bumped up a whole lotta of notches.
But I’m getting away from my main topic. That’s just background info.
Read on for more.
OK.
Here’s the straight dope. (Emphases mine.)
Within days of his announcement that he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination, Beto O’Rourke shot up in the rankings in terms of money, media coverage and Google searches.
Then the knives came out — progressives, women, African-Americans and party loyalists all took a stab at him.
The response to Beto is polarizing the Democratic activist community. The overriding question for Democrats is electability: who can beat Trump is a matter of pressing concern and profound anxiety for at least half the nation. The wrong choice would be disastrous.
Let’s start with O’Rourke’s negatives and we’ll get to the positives later.
—snip—
I repeat:
“Let’s start with O’Rourke’s negatives and we’ll get to the positives later.”
Well…at least we know which way the wind is blowing.
Ten-plus paragraphs and quotes later, it is obvious that O’Rourke must be some kind of post-adolescent asshole!!! If we’re not convinced yet, the following will surely get us there!!!
Negative coverage in the press has been abundant:
“The Unbearable Male Privilege of Beto O’Rourke” (The Daily Beast). “He voted for Republican legislation” (The Wall Street Journal). “He put his adolescent fantasies into print” (The Resurgent). “He’s a wealthy dilettante” (The National Review), “an empty shell” (The New Republic), “a teenage hacker” (USA Today), “a master class in male entitlement” (The Guardian).
I mean…even The Daily Beast (MSNBC/MSDNC in print as far as I am concerned) disapproves of him!!!
The verdict’s in!!!
But…wait a minute!!!
He might just win!!! Then where would the Times be!!!???
As always, on the fence, ready to fall whichever way the wind blows.
But not too far…
Extensive ass-covering follows:
At the same time, O’Rourke has captured the imagination of millions of voters and donors.
Frank Wilkinson, a former colleague of mine, wrote at Bloomberg:
“O’Rourke is not the only candidate modeling decency as an antidote to Trumpism. But he’s the one who has best harnessed the anxiety and rage generated by Trumpism’s assaults on democratic values and transformed them into willful, defiant optimism.”
Don Fowler, former chair of the Democratic National Committee, captures this feeling: “He clearly possesses a charismatic charge, a spark that few others have.”
—snip—
“Only time will tell on both policy and operational scores — wait and see.”
A Texas Democratic operative lavished praise on Beto, on background, in order to speak freely:
“O’Rourke has an intangible energy that goes beyond the litmus test. On a national scale that could be monumental. It’s emotional. It’s not tangible. Beto tapped into something with nontraditional voters. People who never publicly supported a campaign were putting Beto signs in their yard. LeBron James wore his logo on a hat.”
“I first saw the momentum in late spring 2018,” reports the Republican strategist Scott Reed:
“I live in Dallas and saw the yard signs popping up, all in front of large homes and mansions that would traditionally have been straight G.O.P. It almost became a badge of courage for many of the limousine liberals in Dallas.”
Reed, who ran Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign, went on:
“His Willie Nelson event in Austin drew 50k folks and was also a strong signal to young voters — even though very few voted. His performances in the debates was exceptional and added to his momentum. Cruz was the #1 G.O.P. fund-raiser and he got swamped every quarter. I see a little Bobby Kennedy in him.”
—snip—
Robert Stein, a political scientist at Rice, is upbeat on O’Rourke’s prospects.
He wrote me:
Shortly after the November election progressives hit him hard for not backing their issue positions on guns and energy. My sense is that he is looking to avoid being defined on a left/right dimension/continuum. It seems like he is trying to define his candidacy as humane, pragmatic and capable of beating Trump.
Stein argues that
“…he is sufficiently retail for places like Iowa and New Hampshire and if he can survive the rush before Super Tuesday, he should come out of the March primaries in the upper echelon of remaining candidates.”
Although O’Rourke lost the Texas Senate race to Cruz by just under 3 percent, exit polls show that he won among women, 54-46; among voters under 45, 59-40; minorities, 69-31; college graduates, 51-48; moderates, 65-34; and voters who say they are not white born-again or evangelical Christians, 61-38.
—snip—
And there’s the kicker!!!
The kickers, actually.
…he won among women, 54-46
…among voters under 45, 59-40
…minorities, 69-31
…college graduates, 51-48
…moderates, 65-34
…voters who say they are not white born-again or evangelical Christians, 61-38.
Can you spell “supermajority?”
I can, and so can the Times and Edsall, even though they don’t much like it.
B-E-T-O O’-R-O-U-R-K-E !!!
If those numbers hold up nationally?
i mean…hell!!! Even LeBron James likes him!!! And he is rarely wrong.
Really!!!
“LeBron James wore his logo on a hat.”
So there we have it.
Beto O’Rourke is simultaneously:
#1-Some kind of post-adolescent asshole, a media-created flash in the pan.
and
#2-The next coming of Bobby Kennedy.
The NY Times thinks it can deal with him, no matter what happens.
End of story.
And the beginning of the real campaign.
Watch.
It’s about to get really interesting.
Three 70-something mainstreamers…Biden, Sanders and Warren…and Kamala Harris, an ex-prosecutor who refused to prosecute a company suspected of wrongdoing (Herbalife) that had extensive business contacts with her family among a number of other questionable political practices that are just now seeing the light of day nationally.
“But, but…” say the kneejerker leftinesses “…she’s female and black!!! How could she be wrong!!!??? We need her to win in 2020!!!”
WTFU!!!
AG
P.S. I still don’t know about Corey Booker. I didn’t like his act in Newark…I was teaching there often during his mayoral tenure and he struck me as a totally self-promoting political hustler. But also a very smart one, and strong as can be…a necessary asset in the presidential long haul. We shall see.
The rest of the Dem candidates?
Also-rans, I think.
We shall see.
Won’t we.
Personally, if Beto is a bust my next best choice is Elizabeth Warren. She’s “old” too, but she has marvelous energy…more like 50 year-old, to me…and she’s been on the right side of the anti-financial monopoly movement ever since she appeared on the scene.
It’s gonna be an interesting year and a half, though.
Bet on it.
