Beto O'Rourke

The New Republic ran this photo collage and headline in March. Back then Bernie, Elizabeth Warren, Tulsi Gabbard, Jay Inslee and even corporate shill Kirsten Gillibrand had all signed the No Fossil Fuel Money pledge:

Ro & Beto, 2 charismatic Democrats-- both refuse to give blanket endorsements to just anyone in a blue uniform... but for very different reasonsAccording to a CNN report last night, a Democratic Party robot in New Hampshire, Deb Nelson, the chair of the Hanover/Lyme Town Democrats, asked Beto to take the "Any Blue Will Do" pledge.

I haven't seen him in a while, but I used to run into George Takei in one of my favorite neighborhood Italian restaurants all the time. It's an unspoken word in L.A. that you don't bother the celebrities, so I never did say anything to him. Takei is a good solid member of the Democratic Party and he often pushes the party line, feeling, no doubt, that he's doing God's work.

When Beto was running for the Senate he brought the Texas Democratic Party to life. Friends of mine down there told me that wherever he went, a long-moribund Democratic Party was reinvigorated. Local candidates saw their own campaigns catch fire just because of association with Beto.

Emerson did another one of their close-up polls, this one in the very blue state of Massachusetts. With Trump's approval at a mere 29%, it can't be a surprise to anyone that any of the Democrats' potential nominees would beat him handily.

Jon Stewart as Biden: "Hey girl, you seem tense. Is it the stress of me groping you for 28 straight seconds?" by Thomas NeuburgerAn interesting thing is happening around Joe Biden's #MeToo moment. Even though Al Franken was almost immediately rousted from the Senate by now-presidential candidate Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and others for unwanted touching and kissing, handsy kissy Joe Biden is being held to a very different standard. Why?The Democratic Party Reaction to Joe Biden Let's start with Kirsten Gillibrand's reaction.

RT CrossTalk host Peter Lavelle and The Duran’s Alex Christoforou take a look at how former CIA directors,  are passing around a “briefing book” to 2020 Democrat Presidential, candidates to counteract what they call ‘fake news’ and ‘foreign election interference’.
Michael Morell and John McLaughlin have compiled the unclassified report, which contains, in their view, the major national security challenges facing the United States. The “briefing book is being distributing to every Democrat candidate running for U.S. president.

One of my friends called the other day and reminded me that I had first met Barack Obama when he was a state senator, soon after I had discovered that he wasn't an Israeli Irishman. He was running for the U.S. Senate and conventional wisdom said he had no chance at all. He was in 4th place in an 8 person race. Some friends and I put on a fundraiser for him here in L.A. where his presentation stunned everyone in the room. I recall that it cost $75 to get in. After he was done speaking, there was not a single flat surface in the house that wasn't taken by someone writing another check.

by Thomas NeuburgerShort and dirty. Via David Dayen, writing at the American Prospect (emphasis added):

Ames, Iowa to Nashua, New Hampshire is an amazing 3 hours-- then back to Sioux City!As of yesterday, Beto had campaigned in all 190 New Hampshire counties (in just 48 hours of his unique brand of superficiality). He also skateboarded through Iowa and the upper Midwest, playing a guitar and balancing a large American flag ball on his nose.