Robert Francis "Beto" O'Rourke is already "rebooting" his 2020 campaign.

Robert Francis O'Rourke. Politico/Getty.

Robert Frances "Beto" O'Rourke is already rebooting his 2020 presidential campaign. Politico. O'Rourke has launched a series of high profile media appearances starting with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow. He has stated that he needs to do a better job of reaching a national audience. O'Rourke has pre-campaign buzz but he has lingered around 5% in many polls, with Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders with much more support. 

My Comment:

Once again, I won't be referring to O'Rourke by his insufferable nickname. His name is Robert, not "Beto" and I won't participate in his pandering other than for purposes of clarification and search engines. Him going by Beto would be like me going by Tyrone. It's not only a total lie, it's pretty damn racist and nothing more than a cynical attempt to pander to the Hispanic community. 

As for this news, I find it pretty amusing. For all the buzz about O'Rourke his star is fading fast. There is just too much competition in the Democratic Party for people to get excited for a guy that lost to Ted Cruz. He was way over-hyped from the beginning. There was no way a vanilla white guy from Texas was ever going to be the candidate for the Democrats in 2020. 

He doesn't have the support of any of the major factions of the Democratic Party. The establishment might have liked him, but with Joe Biden in the race they are going all out for him, not O'Rouke. The economic leftists are still all in with Bernie Sanders. And the social justice left? No way would they go for a straight white male as their candidate. Who does that leave? I guess 5% of Democratic primary voters, if the polls are accurate. 

I do think that what little momentum he had was ruined by Peter Buttgieg. They have similar policies and beliefs but Buttgieg has the advantage of being higher up on the progressive stack. As a gay man, Buttgieg checks off a box that O'Rourke would never be able to. Plus he got the 15 minutes of media fame that aren't quite up yet, while O'Rourke expended his "hot new thing" label awhile ago. 

Of course, I still say that the current clown car of candidates is mostly a distraction between the real race between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. Neither candidate has the nomination locked up but they are the ones with the most realistic chance of winning. O'Rourke will likely be an afterthought, just like Peter Buttgieg, Elizabeth Warren and the rest. Unless something truly shakes up the race, like Hillary Clinton rising from her political grave to run yet again, it's going to be between Sanders and Biden. 

As for O'Rourke himself, I can't stand the guy. In terms of politics he's middle of the road horrible among the Democratic candidates, but that's damning by faint praise. Regardless of his politics, I have a strong, personal dislike for the guy. Even when he was running against Ted Cruz, who I still don't like, I thought he was a joke. I sincerely hope that this reboot fails and we won't be hearing from O'Rourke for much longer..