OPINION:
In the course of just a couple minutes on CNN, struggling Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke went from “umm, I don’t know” to “umm, yes, I think so” to “hmm, no, nope, not at all” on a question about an issue that, in this point in the game, he ought to have a stand.
It’s like host Jake Tapper was his position whisperer or something.
Here’s the script, hat tip to Mediaite, beginning with Tapper asking if Julian Castro’s immigration plan calling to decriminalize border crossings — to make it A-OK for anyone and everyone to enter America — was right or wrong.
Tapper to O’Rourke: “Do you agree with that? Should that law be repealed?”
Let the stumbling begin.
“I don’t know if it should be repealed, Jake,” O’Rourke said.
Yada, yada, blather, blather. And Tapper asked: OK. Now do you think it should be repealed?
“I think what I’m saying is that in the vast majority of cases, there’s no need to incarcerate or detain migrant families, and especially children,” O’Rourke said.
And then he said bunches more. After which Tapper asked again: OK. Now do you think it should be repealed? Or, in his own words: For God’s sake, gimme a “straight answer,” guy.
“Yeah, I’ve answered that question,” O’Rourke said. “I do not think that it should be repealed.”
This is the problem with O’Rourke — he can’t take a solid stand on anything. He’s all blabber mouth, zero substance.
His gilded tongue and arm-flapping theatrical style of speech won him love from the left-leaning media early in the campaign season. But then came two dozen other candidates — and O’Rourke fizzled.
O’Rourke’s problem is he thinks he can win the presidency like Barack Obama did — on the wings of hopey and changey platitudes that tingle the legs of the non-thinking types — and without ever having to define his positions.
But after a certain point in time, and particularly in a political field that’s crowded and competitive, the voters grow weary of the duck and dodge. Even the low information types that feed off logic-free, heart-pulling pols.
Kudos to Tapper for showing why O’Rourke needs to quit his presidential run right now.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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