The conservative Club for Growth really doesn't want to see Beto O'Rourke as the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee. Before O'Rourke has even announced a campaign, the group is airing an attack ad clearly aimed at Democratic primary voters, skewering him as insufficiently liberal, and unworthy of following in Barack Obama's footsteps.
"Pedigree" paints O'Rourke as the beneficiary of "white privilege" who was "born with a blue-blood pedigree." (Now, it's not common for Irish-Americans to be dubbed "blue bloods," but Beto's father Pat was a successful El Paso politician and his mother Melissa came from a family who owned a profitable furniture store.)
The ad also mentions O'Rourke's "billionaire" father-in-law, and dredges up allegations that O'Rourke, while serving on the El Paso City Council, unethically aided his real estate development business. Twisting the knife, the seemingly liberal narrator says, "That's Beto's idea of community organizing, a bit different than President Obama's."
The narrator further contrasts O'Rourke and Obama, who both went to Columbia University. She credits the former president for being a "progressive champion" on campus, while O'Rourke "perpetuated" stereotypes. To level that charge, the ad quotes from a musical review O'Rourke wrote in college in which he criticized "actresses whose only qualifications seem to be their phenomenally large breasts and tight buttocks." The Club for Growth narrator doesn't mention that context, instead claiming O'Rourke was "casting aspersions on working women."
The ad even brings up O'Rourke 1998 DWI arrest, comparing how Obama was "breaking barriers" while O'Rourke "crashed into them."
On one hand, the fact that a conservative group is in such a hurry to go negative on O'Rourke suggests that Republicans are nervous about his potency as a Democratic nominee. On the other, it's a warning to O'Rourke of what is in store for him if he enters the race.
"Pedigree" paints O'Rourke as the beneficiary of "white privilege" who was "born with a blue-blood pedigree." (Now, it's not common for Irish-Americans to be dubbed "blue bloods," but Beto's father Pat was a successful El Paso politician and his mother Melissa came from a family who owned a profitable furniture store.)
The ad also mentions O'Rourke's "billionaire" father-in-law, and dredges up allegations that O'Rourke, while serving on the El Paso City Council, unethically aided his real estate development business. Twisting the knife, the seemingly liberal narrator says, "That's Beto's idea of community organizing, a bit different than President Obama's."
The narrator further contrasts O'Rourke and Obama, who both went to Columbia University. She credits the former president for being a "progressive champion" on campus, while O'Rourke "perpetuated" stereotypes. To level that charge, the ad quotes from a musical review O'Rourke wrote in college in which he criticized "actresses whose only qualifications seem to be their phenomenally large breasts and tight buttocks." The Club for Growth narrator doesn't mention that context, instead claiming O'Rourke was "casting aspersions on working women."
The ad even brings up O'Rourke 1998 DWI arrest, comparing how Obama was "breaking barriers" while O'Rourke "crashed into them."
On one hand, the fact that a conservative group is in such a hurry to go negative on O'Rourke suggests that Republicans are nervous about his potency as a Democratic nominee. On the other, it's a warning to O'Rourke of what is in store for him if he enters the race.