Realistically she only has two bites at the apple, 2024 and 2028. After all, by 2032 the world will be doomed, in which case there’ll be no point running for office.
I hope she does well for herself over the next six years, as I’m looking forward to her inevitably primarying either President Beto, Chuck Schumer, or — please, God — Kirsten Gillibrand.
Exclusive: A new Axios/SurveyMonkey poll finds that 74% of Democrats (and people who lean Dem) would consider voting for Ocasio-Cortez if she were old enough to run for president. (She’s 29; you have to be at least 35.)
That includes the 17% who would “definitely” vote for her.
Bad form by Axios in not telling us how she stacked up to the competition in the “definitely vote for” category. Her favorable rating among Dems (70/22) is already better than Schumer’s (64/29), though, and competitive with Pelosi’s (75/21), and it’s hard to see how she won’t overtake them soon-ish. Chuck and Nancy each have to grapple with managing a coalition. Compromises that annoy the base will necessarily be made towards that end. AOC, as a backbencher ideologue, can sit back and dose out pure leftism by contrast. I’m frankly surprised that there are 22 percent of Dems who rate her unfavorably. Is that the share of the party that still identifies as centrist, or is that the share that thinks members of Congress should … know things?
Another recent poll, this one from Morning Consult, put AOC underwater in favorability (24/28) but that was a poll of the wider public, not of Democrats specifically. This result is easily explained: For the moment she looms larger in the Republican imagination than she does in the Democratic one.
Among Dems she’s at 43/11 favorability versus 9/49 among Republicans. Why does she get more attention on the right than the left? Because, I think, she’s a living symbol of the possible (probable?) socialist future many righties understandably fear and because she’s quite candid about her contempt for her enemies, both ideological and otherwise. The Onion has noticed the right’s preoccupation with her:
Fox News Debuts Premium Channel For 24-Hour Coverage Of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez https://t.co/Kckt0jHF2C pic.twitter.com/TS9tc7obB2
— The Onion (@TheOnion) January 20, 2019
“Funny,” said the man who’s writing this site’s third AOC post of the day.
Here she is previewing her inspiring 2028 campaign message: America needs to reckon with its horrors just like the Germans after Nazism did.
Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) suggests that the U.S. needs to pay “reparations” like Germany did “after the Holocaust” if it wants to heal: “Until America tells the truth about itself, we are not going to heal” pic.twitter.com/NlFWwtFH4u
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) January 22, 2019
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