Beto O'Rourke's campaign comes to life in a darkened theater, for better and worse

[dalton99a]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/beto-orourkes-campaign-comes-to-life-in-a-darkened-theater-for-better-and-worse/2019/03/09/c9529168-41ea-11e9-922c-64d6b7840b82_story.html

Beto O’Rourke’s campaign comes to life in a darkened theater, for better and worse
By Jenna Johnson
March 9 at 7:22 PM

AUSTIN — As soon as the lights fell for the Saturday premiere of the HBO documentary “Running with Beto,” former congressman Beto O’Rourke sneaked into the darkened movie theater with his wife and daughter.

The crowd spotted him and cheered. A photographer followed O’Rourke to his seat, the camera flash lighting the potential presidential candidate’s face. A woman in the third row whispered: “He’s like a movie star.”

In less than a year, O’Rourke has been transformed from a relatively unknown congressman from El Paso, running a long-shot campaign in Texas against Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, to a political celebrity who is regularly mobbed by adoring fans and urged by strangers to run for president — something that those close to him say he plans to do.

But celebrity exacts a cost, one that the documentary showed was borne by O’Rourke’s three young children. For 90 minutes on Saturday, O’Rourke was reminded in intimate detail just how difficult his last campaign was — and how grueling an even higher profile race may be — for his children.



People gather outside the Paramount Theatre for the documentary on Beto O'Rourke, “Running with Beto” at the South by Southwest film festival. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)


Beto O'Rourke walks on stage at the Paramount Theatre after the documentary was shown. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)


Former congressman Beto O'Rourke speaks at the Paramount Theatre after the documentary on him, “Running with Beto,” was shown Saturday in Austin. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

[peggysue2]

2. "He's like a movie star"

That's the money quote and the designated 'it' factor.

Whether O'Rourke can take that lightening in a bottle and hit the campaign trail as a credible presidential candidate remains to be seen. But there's no denying the rock star quality he'll bring to the mix.

And that's a huge advantage for O'Rourke who might otherwise might be ignored in a huge pack of presidential wanna-be's.

He'll be under enormous pressure to live up to all this attention and scrambling. He'll need to be on-point right from the start.

Can he do it? I don't know. I'll be watching, listening. I suspect a lot of other Democrats will too.

[Old Vet]

5. Hope so peggy.............

[marlakay]

3. Part of it depends on who he picks

as his team for campaigning, I imagine with so many already in the race a bunch of the good ones are already taken.

But who knows, he may have talked to a bunch in secret just waiting.

I said Harris because I like her of the ones running and I do want a woman president but I do really like Beto and would rather have him than Biden if it came down to those two. I really feel the time is right to make pot legal across the states. Its crazy with all the people it has helped for it still to be class one and I know Joe is solid against it.

Beto believes like I do on a bunch of issues, but then so does Harris. I am looking to see who can beat Trump.

And from what I hear Joe is still beholden to Wall Street and the two I like are not. I want a president with no strong ties to the corporations. Saying you are going to tame them while taking money from them is a problem for me.

[Cha]

4. KR!