Not Joe Biden, whose Delaware-sized ego is going to convince him to run again, despite the cries of a majority of Democrats. No, I mean Beto O’Rourke, who appears to have made up his mind to enter the race, according to the Dallas Morning News.
The newspaper is only reporting that anonymous sources close to O’Rourke said he would not be running against Sen. John Cornyn, which is smart whether or not he runs for president. Cornyn is just as conservative as Ted Cruz, but isn’t nearly so big an asshole, so O’Rourke would probably lose again. And, as it is in boxing, so it is in politics — two consecutive losses for the same office essentially end your career.
Progressives won’t cheer this, because they’re convinced O’Rourke is a centrist or worse. But that assumes he would run for president on the same platform he used to run for a Senate seat in Texas. My guess is that, if he runs, you’ll see Beto employ much more liberal rhetoric this time around, because he’ll have little chance if he’s being attacked from the left by a half-dozen progressive candidates.