Beto Wants to Be Obama—But Came Off Like Trump
Beto O’Rourke wants to be the next Barack Obama, but he launched his campaign more like Donald Trump.
Celebrity can go a long way in America. O’Rourke timed his White House announcement to the release of a Vanity Fair cover that has him, tousled hair and hands on hips, with a black Lab and the open road behind him.
Four years ago, Trump came down that escalator, waving to the crowd, his wife silently a few steps ahead of him, out of the shot by the time he started speaking. O’Rourke announced Thursday morning via a video shot from his couch, his hand gesturing up and down to punctuate his script, his wife sitting beside him, half smiling but not speaking for three and a half minutes.
He gave no specifics on how he’d do anything he wants to do, or even exactly what that might be, in his announcement, other than a long pledge to uplift people and bring the country together, instead of tearing it apart, as Trump has. Nor did he give specifics at his first event, in Iowa later in the morning and carried live on cable—he talked about health care but
