Beto’s Apology Tour The identity left is carving him up like a Texas steak before he gets to Donald Trump.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/betos-apology-tour-11552951261
Beto O’Rourke’s presidential campaign is off to a gangbusters financial start, raising $6 million in just 24 hours, more than even Bernie Sanders. As for Mr. O’Rourke’s reputation as a strong leader—on that presidential characteristic he needs work.
The former Texas Congressman’s first few days as a candidate have been one long apology tour. At several stops he used a stock campaign line that his wife, Amy, raised their three children, “sometimes with my help.” He meant it to be a self-deprecating joke and a note of gratitude to his wife, but in today’s identity-politics hothouse he was quickly denounced for his male privilege.
“Not only will I not say that again,” Mr. O’Rourke soon responded in Iowa, “but I’ll be more thoughtful going forward in the way that I talk about our marriage.”
Then there was his record as a teenage hacker when he stole long-distance phone service and downloaded “cracked” or pirated software—this according to a lengthy Reuters report published on Friday. Evidently the former Congressman has known the report was coming for months (he spoke on the record to the reporter). That he still chose to run for President suggests he’s confident the story won’t kill his chances.
He may be right. This is low-level misbehavior from three decades ago—Mr. O’Rourke seems to have stopped his hackery around age 18 when he enrolled in Columbia University. He also apologized for writing a fictional piece, under the pseudonym Psychedelic Warlord, in which the narrator expresses his delight running over schoolkids with his car (“I heard the crashing of the two children on the hood, and then the sharp cry of pain from one of the two”). “I’m mortified to read it now, incredibly embarrassed, but I have to take ownership of my words,” the 2020 candidate said.
Mr. O’Rourke even apologized for using the line “I’m just born to be in it”—“it” meaning the presidential race—in an interview with Vanity Fair. Hypersensitive critics wondered if he meant he was born to be president.
Of course he didn’t, but he apologized anyway: “When I saw the cover with that quote … I was like, ‘Man, I hope I didn’t say that.’ “What he meant, he helpfully explained, “is that I’m born to serve, I’m born to try to help bring people together.” Glad that’s cleared up.
The Texan’s problem is that he looks like a pushover for the left’s grievance caucus. His instinct is to apologize for anything and everything: for youthful misconduct, for harmless comments, for being a white male. Add to that a habit of equivocation: He supports single-payer health care but doesn’t like Medicare for All, he applauds the Green New Deal but doesn’t quite support it, and he has long wavered between moderate unifier and progressive firebrand.
The socialists and identity-politics left are ready to carve up Mr. O’Rourke like a Texas steak. And that’s before Donald Trump gets to him. He’ll need to show some courage, or he’ll be gone by Labor Day.
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