Passing the O'Mantle?

Martin O'Malley got what he wanted when Beto O'Rourke announced his presidential candidacy.  Here's what O'Malley said in an e-mail to those who supported his 2016 presidential bid:

Beto O'Rourke of Texas announced . . .  that he is running for President of the United States. I am excited to do all I can to support him, and I hope you might consider supporting him as well.

So far in this campaign, about a dozen Democratic candidates have jumped into the race - some of them I know personally, many of them I like. But as I have gotten to know Beto O’Rourke, I've come to believe that he best represents the new generation of leadership our country needs. O’Rourke has the heart, talent, and courage to unite what has been torn apart, and to lead our country forward.

And why does O'Malley think so?  He didn't say in this particular e-mail.  He hasn't been much more forthcoming in answering that question on earlier occasions, either. 

I suppose O'Malley sees a kindred spirit in O'Rourke, and he has in fact said that one reason for his support of Beto is because of Beto's similarly liberal stand on immigration. But other Democrats support liberal immigration reform, so what makes Beto different?  As far I can make out, the only other thing O'Rourke really has in common with O'Malley is a surname with an apostrophe in it.  Only Irish identity politics could explain why a governor who came up with a green energy policy long before anyone in Congress did endorse for President a Texan who took donations from folks who work for oil companies, and only Irish identity politics could explain why a guy married to a judge would endorse a guy whose wife doesn't speak in public.  The O'Malley e-mail I just referred to, incidentally, was sent out to ask for donations for O'Rourke's presidential bid.

What day did he send it?  St. Patrick's Day, of course.

Meanwhile, the Beto backlash has already begun.  Kamala Harris, in a veiled insult, said she looks forward to a substantial debate with Beto in the Democratic presidential debates, which is tantamount to saying that she looks forward to an intellectual debate with Donald Trump in the general election campaign.  Amy Klobuchar thought O'Rourke had a lot of damn gall too say he was born to run for President, suggesting that its just one more example of white male privilege - no woman or brown person, we are told, would have said that and gotten away with it, but who's to say Beto did get away with it?  

Some of the anti-Beto rhetoric is a little over the top, to be fair, like the comment that no woman running for President has gotten the sort of coverage Beto got.  Whoever said that must have been asleep when the media were fawning over Harris for much of January.  By the same token, though, some male candidates for President would love to get the sort of coverage Beto is getting, if only because they have more substantial rhetoric - Jay Inslee on climate change, for example.

I thought O'Malley's Beto-backing would make him look silly if O'Rourke had not run for President, but he looks sillier now that O'Rourke is in.  His endorsement of Beto has only renewed toxic comments from anti-O'Malley trolls on social media, and O'Rourke, despite his fine start in Iowa, risks embarrassing O'Malley even more.  Like the news that O'Rourke wrote teenage-murder fantasies in his youth.  Only Irish identity politics could, again, explain why a guy who loves Celtic folk rock and reveres a poet like William Butler Yeats could endorse a candidate whose teen literature can only be explained as having come from someone who could be described as "mentally disturbed," "hyper-nihilistic" or "listened to way too much Black Sabbath in high school."

I admitted long ago that Irish identity politics was a reason I supported O'Malley, but I have also stressed that I had better reasons to support him, like his record as governor of Maryland.  But I'm not going to support Beto just because his last name is O'Rourke, or because O'Malley supports him.  O'Malley drives a Ford Explorer, but you don't see me trading in my Golf for an SUV just because my 2016 presidential candidate has one.  

There may be another reason O'Malley supports O'Rourke - because he's so reminiscent of Bobby Kennedy, a sainted politician O'Malley is barely old enough to remember.  But until O'Rourke can come up with something more substantial and honestly say he can propose new policies rather than oppose any man - or woman - then, the only things Robert Francis O'Rourke has in common with RFK are his Christian names and his haircut.  But that's another (long) post.

Once again, Unn D. Sided is my 2020 presidential favorite.