As his political fortunes appear destined to follow those of two decades worth of Texas Democrats before him, Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke is losing the affection of his fawning admirers in the national mainstream media.
In past years, the national press just moved on from their hopes that the amazingly charismatic
Insert-Name-Here can be The One to usher in a new era of Democrat dominance in the Lone Star State. They told themselves they usually knew it wasn’t true, but they had hoped. Really, really, really hoped.
They hoped Tony Sanchez could beat Rick Perry, that Bill White could do it, or maybe that Wendy “Abortion Barbie” Davis could trounce Abbott. Each time their infatuation got the better of them. They hoped, but didn’t let themselves fall as completely head-over-heels in love as they did this summer.
This year, the lefty press fell madly in love. They had a rich, entitled white liberal – raised by politically connected liberal parents – who successfully appropriated a nickname of the local Hispanic culture. SCORE! Here was a Democrat they loved. He was one of them.
Beto was everything they loved. His drunk-driving record evoked the Kennedy legacy. His leering smirk reminded them of Clinton (Bill, not Hillary). His inability to speak coherently without a script reminded them of Obama. He even got the endorsement of the “creepy porn lawyer” with whom they are so smitten.
And then the real election polling numbers began to emerge. Oh. No.
Politico, the daily devotional reading for the Left, has emerged from their rapturous infatuation with O’Rourke— furious they let a buffoonish congressman from Nowheresville fool them. El Paso? Really? How—they wonder in print—could their elitist friends have all fallen so hard for this lightweight?
They assign special blame to the failing Texas Monthly, a far-left magazine that once catered to doctors office waiting rooms and Californians thinking of emigrating east. Texas Monthly was bought a couple years ago by disgraced political hack Paul Hobby. His daddy was a Democrat bigwig back in the 1980s when Democrats actually held statewide offices in Texas. Paul has hoped for years to be taken as seriously as a political force as his daddy was, but he’s increasingly seen as little more than a punchline. It would appear his magazine’s fawning support of Beto (and every other Democrat) isn’t helping.
Notes Politico:
In late August, Texas Monthly took O’Rourke swoonery to its highest altitudes when it started gaming out the political possibilities that await the candidate should he lose this contest in a piece titled “Will Beto O’Rourke Become President?”
… “Such has been the El Paso congressman’s streak of good press and respectable polls of late that it’s beginning to look like even a loss in his Senate race might not diminish his political momentum,” the article concludes.
When the local press says you can win by losing, how can the national press disagree?
The lefty press wants dearly for Texas to be Californized, but they keep looking for love in all the wrong places. After two decades of heartbreak, you’d think the national media would realize the Texas media knows less about Texans than they do.
But rest assured that in just 18 months we will begin hearing anew about the amazingly charismatic Insert-Name-Here who will be The One in 2020 to turn Texas blue. They cannot help themselves.
