As always Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog is the only site on the web that criticizes both major parties equally. Thoughts are turning toward the 2020 Presidential race here in the U.S. At this point the Republican candidate will likely be President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, everybody but the corpse of Lyndon Johnson seems to be announcing their candidacy on the Democrat side of the aisle.
One of the candidates for the Democrats is Robert O’Rourke, who likes to go by the nickname Beto. We’ll take a look at why everyone may be underestimating him. Why start with O’Rourke? Well …
Joe Biden is too old and white and gaffe-prone and gropey for a party which has been putting a premium on youth, #MeToo, etc.
Kamala Harris is far too open about her contempt for Catholics and Jews and, being a Senator from California, she seems to mistakenly assume that won’t matter to nationwide voters.
Bernie Sanders was robbed of the nomination in 2016 by Hillary Clinton and the DNC machine. Though he once seemed to have the same populist appeal as Trump he has earned a reputation as a sellout in the past few years.
Getting back to O’Rourke, here’s a quick non-partisan take on what he has going for him.
A. O’Rourke’s unsuccessful Senate run in 2018 was partly marked by the way he imitated Donald Trump’s 2016 tactic of setting records on INDIVIDUAL donations. As it did with Trump this gave O’Rourke a positive image compared to candidates who prefer nothing but Big Money Donors.
B. “Not experienced” has come to mean “not yet fully bought and paid for” in the public mind, and in this era of Trump and AOC O’Rourke’s inexperience could actually help him or at least be a wash. This element was looked at in even greater depth HERE
C. So he skateboarded. Big deal. Bill Clinton put on an apron and tossed pizza dough back in 1992 when seeking the presidency. Candidates do oddball, silly things to add to their “regular folks” appeal. O’Rourke’s detractors seem convinced that the skateboarding bit exposed him as a hopeless lightweight.
D. Youth, youth, youth. For the Democrats that has become like “location, location, location” for realtors.
E. At present O’Rourke is not wedded in the public consciousness to tainted pols like Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi. AOC’s grip on the media has shown that a willingness to keep your distance from the Old Guard won’t necessarily hurt you like it did in the “go along to get along” past.
This is not an endorsement of O’Rourke, it’s just a reminder that virtually nobody took Barack Obama or Donald Trump seriously at first, either.
Balladeer's Blog 
ORourke loses me with his pro illegal immigration stand.
Me too. I was just offering a non-partisan take.
So you Beto lovers think his open-borders plans are good?
Hello! I’m not a Beto lover but I always get accused of being a “lover” of any politician I write about in a less-than-condemnatory way. Both sides of the political spectrum, too.