The national media’s love affair with New Jersey’s Cory Booker continued in The Washington Post on Tuesday. On the front of the Style section was the headline “A perfect senator for ‘This Town’? Newark’s Cory Booker isn’t lacking in ideas, energy or self-promotion.””
Who needs self-promotion when you’ve got national media valentine-writers? This Jason Horowitz profile continued on the back page of Style with the headline “Booker seems to be a man made for D.C.” It was illustrated by pictures with captions that called Booker “POPULAR” and “CAGEY.” The Post can’t wait for Booker to thump the Tea Party opponent for the Democrats:
Unless something implausible happens — specifically, an unknown tea party candidate named Steve Lonegan wins statewide office in New Jersey — Booker will return to Washington this fall as the state’s junior senator and a regular in the presidential and vice presidential sweepstakes...
Booker acknowledges that the race is his to lose. He is prepping for the eventual move to the capital with a nightly audio book appointment with “This Town,” the bestseller by New York Times reporter Mark Leibovich that paints an unflattering portrait of official Washington.
“I fell asleep to it last night,” Booker says a few hours after receiving an endorsement from President Obama, a friend to whom he is often compared. “I love to see the cognitive laziness — that is, cynicism — at its best.”
In the story, Booker prattled on about how “my whole life has been about confronting cynicism.” He brags when asked what kind of Senator he will be: “I just know that I’m innovative. I’m a quick thinker. . . . In Washington, I just want to be a senator who finds a way to drive change and not figure out a way to conform.”
Horowitz says conservatives fear Booker will be a "liberal lion," while liberals fear "a Trojan horse for Wall Street and Silicon Valley interests." The Post reporter sees a national star:
But the liberal point of attack is not Booker’s only vulnerability. Skeptics look at his life story — suburbs, Stanford/Oxford Rhodes scholar/Yale Law, followed by his choice to live in crime-ridden housing projects and to conduct hunger strikes on drug corners — and see a made-for-TV candidate with an eye on the Oval Office. (If this was a stunt, it was an especially enduring one, lasting 15 years.)
Horowitz added: “He promises to be ‘fiercely myself.’ The search for Cory Booker’s true self has enthralled New Jersey since he came to Newark’s city council in 1998." He said some people drop names, while Booker "drops past exploits," like how he's never taken a vacation longer than ten days. He's well-spoken in several languages:
He is partial to quoting Winston Churchill and using rhetorical flourishes, such as “Touché, mon capitaine.” He says goodbye to the diner owners in Greek, chats with an Ecuadorean patron in Spanish and wishes a Jewish reporter happy holidays in Hebrew.
Cory Booker, in other words, can talk to anyone. He rarely misses an opportunity to point out that he and Christie — two of the most talented and quick-on-their-feet politicians in the country — have worked together to bring development and jobs to Newark.
Horowitz even referred to TED talks, the trendy website that displays videos of "Riveting talks by remarkable people" (now with its own radio show now on NPR). "Booker is cagey about whether he aspires to be the next Sen. Ted Kennedy, but there is no doubt that he would be the chamber's Senator TED Talk."]
The search for the next Obama seems to be over. Follow the slimy trail of media goo.
