The great white hope of the liberal media, Robert “Beto” O’Rourke is going down in flames on Tuesday. Leftists and the adoring media may not want to admit it, but the writing is on the wall. Left wing biased Politico isn’t waiting for Tuesday. They have already written O’Rourke’s political obituary, claiming Cruz was “so beatable.”
Based on the high early turnout models, the best O’Rourke can hope for at this point is a 2 or 3 point improvement over the Democrat who last ran against Ted Cruz, Paul Sadler. He got a whole 41% of the vote in 2012 (Obama’s last election.)
| Politico has already written Robert Beto O’Rourke’s political obituary |
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For political junkies, the homestretch in Texas has been as instructive as it has been entertaining. By mid-October, with Cruz’s lead holding steady and O’Rourke running out of time, the Democratic challenger came under enormous pressure to go on the offensive. As the incumbent pummeled his opponent with millions of dollars of attack ads, Democratic panic resembled the Republican freakout months earlier during the yard sign onslaught: Why aren’t you doing something about this?
O’Rourke finally took the gloves off during a San Antonio debate, resurrecting Trump’s “Lyin’ Ted” caricature and jabbing the senator’s unsavory reputation in Washington. But within days O’Rourke expressed regret at his tactics, saying he never wanted to run a negative race. The episode highlighted both the upside and downside of O’Rourke’s approach to unseating Cruz. “On the one hand, you give him credit—he’s changing the game. No pollsters, no consultants,” Aldrete, the Democratic strategist, said. “But when you face millions of dollars in negative ads, do you have a process to push back? As they defined him, which I think they have, there were limitations in what he was able to do. But I give him credit for running the race he wants to run.”
There is no doubt that O’Rourke has been defined. While his favorability numbers with Texas Democrats are sky-high, several recent polls showed him with the highest unfavorable rating of any politician in the state. Meanwhile, Cruz’s campaign has been unrelenting, rolling out a series of closing attack ads meant to step on the challenger’s neck. On paper, having raised $70 million—at least double what Cruz has accrued since the beginning of 2017—O’Rourke should have the resources to counter every negative Cruz spot with a positive one of his own. Yet that isn’t the case; while O’Rourke continues to pump historic amounts of money into digital advertising, primarily via Facebook, Cruz outspent him on television in the final two weeks of October. And, according to media-buy figures, Cruz is poised to outspend O’Rourke by nearly $1 million in the campaign’s final weeks.