How’s that quote go? “First time tragedy, second time farce”? And while starboard side of the political aisle may be chuckling up its collective sleeve about the polling of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as current front-runner for the Democrat Presidential nomination, history would like a word.

It’s been almost 21 years since a little known, Illinois state senator, Barack Obama, gave the keynote address at 2004 Democratic National Convention. Gen Z have little to no memory of Obama presidency, let alone his early years as a community organizer and meteoric political rise to the Oval Office. Yet it would do well for us older folk to remember Mr. Clean and Articulate was underestimated as a political force due to youth and inexperience.

Which doomed us to eight years (really 12 … no one really believes Creepy Joe made any decision on his own) of fundamental change to American politics and culture by a true cult-of-personality character.

Hollywood heavyweights made their pledges to Barack Obama in the video below. Directed and edited by Demi Moore, it features celebrity pledges by Cameron Diaz, Hayden Panetierre, Laura Linney, Dakota Fanning, Jaime Pressley, Ashlee Simpson, Nicole Richie, Ashton Kutcher, Tobey Maguire, Diddy, Alyssa Milano, Marisa Tomei, Courteney Cox Arquette and David Arquette, and others.

The “we promise to serve Obama” video only lives on here:

The 2008 campaign was just a twist on classic Democrat strategy. John McCain was legacy media’s Maverick darling right up until he secured the nomination. The GOTV crews were filled with shiny-faced youngins high on The One. Barry was Jonas Nightengale in his sequined jacket reflecting back to his followers everything they wished to see in him. And no matter how good the GOP argument was that Obama was young, inexperienced, and running on personality rather than substance, McCain lost first, Romney in 2012.

It’s lessons we should never forget when watching the rise of enthusiasm for AOC.

With AOC well-positioned to make a run at the Democratic nomination in 2028, no doubt some Republicans will be giddy at the prospect of facing down this self-described socialist with demonstrated champagne tastes. (snip)

Her taste for the good life — glamming it up at the Met Gala (then stiffing designers on the bill) and taking first-class flights on her way to an anti-oligarchy rally — undermines her message to the working class.

As does her weepy open-borders advocacy.

But her potential opponents would be unwise to underestimate her.

She’s only just become constitutionally eligible for the Oval Office, but already has an adoring national following that hangs on her every word, as her cross-country tour with Sanders this month demonstrates.

The enthusiasm she inspires on the left is matched only by that which Trump evokes on the right.

“She is a rockstar, AOC,” one fan told The Post’s Kirsten Fleming at a rally in Idaho this week. “It’s like, Madonna and AOC.”

I refer back to Obama’s early run for 2008 and how soothing it was to the GOPe to feel that once the voters got a taste of his radical background … from mentorship received from university professor cum 60s terrorist Bill Ayers to his racist/anti-American pastor, Jeremiah White … they would surely give a decisive win to Vietnam Vet and “works well with Democarts” McCain.

How did that work out, now?

Obama had real radical Left roots, trunk and branches yet he was clean, bright, articulate and semi-black. A Magic Negro in the teflon empty suit.

A tragedy. So don’t dismiss out-of-hand the farce of AOC, GirlBoss in six-inch Manolo Blahniks, sipping champagne in first class ready to fight for the right of BigNannyGov to take your gas stove. The fangirls of both sexes swooning over AOC love her style and care little for substance. They already believe the mendacities spread by legacy media 24/7, the demonization and othering of non-Leftists to the point where violence, even assassination, is acceptable.

This is an election we can easily lose.

Don’t get cocky.

featured image, original graphic by Darleen Click