He’s running.

We often say that as a joke every time some politico makes a move which appears to be setting the stage for a presidential bid. But Senator Cory Booker doesn’t even appear to be trying to act coy anymore. In an interview with New York Magazine, the question was put to Booker, and while he didn’t come right out and declare his candidacy, he danced right up to the line. (Washington Times)

Sen. Cory Booker says that it would be “irresponsible” for him not to seriously imagine a future where he runs for president and ultimately goes on to occupy the White House.

The New Jersey Democrat, speaking in an extensive profile piece in New York magazine on the trajectory of his career, the current political climate and his future ambitions, said that prudence demands he considers challenging President Trump in 2020.

“Of course the presidency will be something I consider,” he said for the interview published Wednesday. “It would be irresponsible not to.”

Cory Booker is unquestionably a politician driven by ambition and filled with a tremendous belief in his own greatness. I don’t say that in a negative way because nobody steps up and declares that they’re ready to be the leader of the free world unless they’ve got an awfully high opinion of themselves. It comes with the territory.

He’s never been short on self-confidence and ambition and he’s always had a flair for the dramatic. Before he was even thirty years old he landed a spot on the New York City Council after living in a tent among the homeless for ten days and staging a hunger strike. By age 36 he was Mayor of Newark, a major (if majorly troubled) city in this country. Barely seven years later he was in the Senate. For him to see himself following in Barack Obama’s footsteps and moving into the West Wing shouldn’t be all that shocking.

It’s interesting that Booker would use the word “irresponsible” to describe his choice, though, isn’t it? I mean, having a sense of responsibility is certainly a desirable trait in a president, but how “responsible” was it to violate longstanding Senate rules and release confidential documents multiple times? He’s facing calls for an Ethics Committee investigation into those actions which could theoretically see him expelled from the upper chamber or at least censured. When the moment came and he faced the test of acting in a responsible manner, he failed.

Booker is a show pony with an ego big enough to bridge the Hudson River. Of course, you need that sort of ego to believe you can be president of the greatest nation on Earth, but you also need the temperament back it up. If he makes a run for the nomination in 2020 it’s going to make for some interesting debates. We’ll be sure to alert you if he starts another hunger strike.