It’s the classic “good news/bad news” scenario for Democrats hoping to toss President Donald Trump out of office during next year’s election.
The good news is that a top Republican consultant and longtime GOP pollster – one respected enough on both sides of the aisle to get airtime on CNN and Fox News alike – believes there IS someone on the left who just might be able to do it.
The bad news?
By law, she can’t run!
Pollster Frank Luntz says leftist sensation and social media darling Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the freshman democratic socialist from New York, is the only one who has a chance against the president.
“The key is authenticity,” Luntz told Laura Ingraham on Fox News. “You want to be able to say what you mean, mean what you say. You want to be able to look straight at the camera and be yourself. At least half of them [the 2020 hopefuls] are trying to be something that they’re not.”
Ingraham agreed the Ocasio-Cortez “seems very genuine.”
While most of the Democratic field struggles with authenticity problems, Ocasio-Cortez – wrong as she may be – certainly seems to hold genuine beliefs.
Even many independent conservatives who despite her politics have cheered when she’s called out the power of corporate money and lobbyists, especially given that she targets politicians from both parties, including those within her own Democratic caucus.
Last year, she said an orientation session for incoming lawmakers run by Harvard’s Kennedy School was packed with lobbyists running the sessions.
“Was this a multi-decade, pro-corporate lobbyist project the entire time?” she asked on Twitter.
Indeed, a leaked schedule revealed at least eight lobbyists were running various sessions.
Earlier this month, she slammed both Democrats and Republicans for sending staffers to a chichi resort weekend where they were given talking points from healthcare industry lobbyists… in between sips of expensive wine, manicures and important “conferences” at the resort swimming pool, no doubt.
And she called them all out on Twitter – which is Trump’s home turf, one more thing the two have in common.
“No one is having a better time at politics than Donald Trump and AOC,” Luntz said. “They should run against each other even though legally she can’t.”
Ingraham again agreed, saying Ocasio-Cortez “looks like she’s having fun.”
But there IS one area where Luntz would appear to be wrong – and that’s her ability to beat ANYONE nationally, much less Trump.
She won her district because it’s not only overwhelmingly Democratic but also very liberal.
“[S]he’s a wonderful member of Congress as I think all of our colleagues will attest. But those are districts that are solidly Democratic,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at an event last month.
Then, she gestured to a glass of water next to her.
“This glass of water would win with a ‘D’ next to its name in those districts,” she said.
OUCH!
Nationally, however, polls show her swirling down the drain.
A Quinnipiac poll released in March gave her a favorable rating of just 23 percent, with 36 percent unfavorable.
That’s a minus-13 approval rating!
Another poll in her home state of New York had her at 31-44 approval/disapproval… again a negative-13 approval rating.
Numbers like that are the kiss of death for any wider political ambitions, especially given that every other national poll this year has also had her underwater.
In any case, the point is moot: Ocasio-Cortez will turn 31 the month before Election Day next year, four years shy of the Constitutionally mandated age of 35 for a United States president.
But in 2024? She’ll be exactly 35 and able to run against Trump at last… but by then, it’ll be another Trump: Ivanka.
— Walter W. Murray is a reporter for The Horn News. He is an outspoken conservative and a survival expert, and is the author of “America’s Final Warning.”