Beto O’Rourke, the golden boy of the Democratic Party, had a little sit down with the Washington Post and said a lot without saying much of anything. In fact, he gave his best imitation of Charles Durning as the Governor in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. There was a lot of side-stepping and dodging, especially when it came to immigration. I guess if you don’t give specifics, they can’t be used against you later. I don’t know about you, but I expect someone who represented El Paso for six years in Congress and who, prior to that, served several terms as a city councilman to have at least an inkling about what should be done. Surely, that isn’t asking too much.

When asked specifically about those who remain in the US after their visas expire, O’Rourke paused and then said, “I don’t know.” Eventually, he came up with, “The United States could harmonize its visa system with Mexico’s to keep better track of who is coming into the country and leaving it.” Pardon me while I laugh hysterically. We already know they are in the country. they had visas. They chose to break the law and not leave. How is “harmonizing” the system with Mexico going to help?

Then, in true Beto-fashion, he waffled back, perhaps fearing he had said too much.

That’s an answer,, but that’s something that we should be debating.”

He’s a big proponent of debate, as long as he doesn’t have to give specifics on where he stands on an issue.

In WaPo interview, Beto O'Rourke displays striking lack of knowledge about immigration. Just knows one thing: He's against a wall. https://t.co/11mGss2gJA pic.twitter.com/5hlSFKP0GC

— Byron York (@ByronYork) January 15, 2019

From the Post:

When it comes to many of the biggest policy issues facing the country today, O’Rourke’s default stance is to call for a debate — even on issues related to the border and immigration, which he has heavily emphasized in videos posted to Facebook and Instagram over the past month.”

That’s all well and good, if you are in office and trying to pass legislation. But when you are running for office, it’s kind of nice to let voters know where you stand on the issues. And make no mistake, Beto is running. Whether he will declare for the 2020 presidential race or be tapped as someone’s running mate–or both–he gives every indication of a man on a mission. That mission is to get elected.

Hell, you would have had to live under a rock in a cave with the entrance blocked not to have realized it during his senatorial campaign. The DNC loved them some Beto and did everything they could to get him elected over Ted Cruz. Now he is once again taking the Beto Show on the road. Soon you’ll be able to see him not only on his incessant Twitter and Facebook feeds but with Oprah as well. Won’t that be fun?

That’s a problem when you’re like, ‘It will be a wall,’ or ‘It will be this,’ or ‘We can only do it with this,’’ O’Rourke said when asked why he doesn’t have firm stances. ‘The genius is we can nonviolently resolve our differences, though I won’t get to my version of perfect or I, working with you, will get to something better than what we have today . . . It’s rare that someone’s ever been able to impose their will unilaterally in this country. We don’t want that.’”

Say what?

That’s all Beto-speak for “I don’t want to tell you what I think because you might realize I have opinions you don’t agree with.” Instead, he told the Post that once we know “the facts and the story and the information and the opportunity,” we’ll come to the right decisions on how to deal with illegal immigration.

The problem with that is the decision isn’t something we make as some wonderful collective sitting around the campfire singing “Kumbaya”. This isn’t the socialist utopia Lenin promised and folks like Bernie Sanders and others dangle before voters like a carrot. This is the United States where we elect our representatives on local, state and national levels to pass laws and who are sworn to protect our Republic.

What else did Beto have to say? Not much and nothing very surprising. When asked about the withdrawal of troops from Syria, he said, he’d like to see “a debate, a discussion, a national conversation about why we’re there, why we fight, why we sacrifice the lives of American service members, why we’re willing to take the lives of others” everywhere the US is involved. He loved the Green New Deal recently proposed, calling it a “bold” move. Then he backpedaled yet again, saying it was a good place to start a discussion.

Gee, it’s starting to sound like he is all talk and no substance. Who would have thought?

As the Post points out, this sudden emphasis on the border and illegal immigration is new for Beto. His role in legislation on the issue while in Congress was “negligible”. Hmm, posturing for the cameras and the media much?

Perhaps the Washington Examiner says it best:

This honesty is refreshing. It is certainly preferable to the normal nonsensical boilerplate that politicians regurgitate when caught in questions they can’t answer. But this honesty is also alarming because O’Rourke has spent the last six years representing a border district in Congress.

Yet, according to the Washington Post, the border is “personal” for Beto.

Yep, it’s personal now that it is a key talking point for any politician running for office.

Here is perhaps the most alarming quote from his interview–and that’s saying a great deal. But when you have a former Congressman, someone who is clearly ramping up for another run for office, wonder if our country can still be governed by the principles laid out in the Constitution, you have worry.  Just as you have to worry when he is unsure if the country is capable of change.

I’m hesitant to answer it,” he said, “because I really feel like it deserves its due, and I don’t want to give you a — actually, just selfishly, I don’t want a sound bite of it reported, but, yeah, I think that’s the question of the moment: Does this still work?  Can an empire like ours with military presence in over 170 countries around the globe, with trading relationships . . . and security agreements in every continent, can it still be managed by the same principles that were set down 230-plus years ago?”

This is the man the DNC fell in love with and threw so much money behind in an attempt to elect him to the Senate. This is the man Hollywood adores. It isn’t far-fetched to wonder if they don’t look at him as the JFK of this generation. If so, perhaps they should take a closer look at their “King Arthur” and his Camelot. Like Kennedy, O’Rourke his human with more than a few skeletons in his closet. Being able to dance around issues while riding his skateboard won’t get him elected. At least I hope not.

Featured Image by crockodile and licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.