Beto Meets Reality-- Elizabeth Warren Too?

Emerson did another one of their close-up polls, this one in the very blue state of Massachusetts. With Trump's approval at a mere 29%, it can't be a surprise to anyone that any of the Democrats' potential nominees would beat him handily. What has to be disturbing about the poll for Elizabeth Warren, though, is that both Biden and Bernie would beat Trump more decisively than she would. Worse yet-- for her-- is that with younger voters breaking for Sanders, and older voters breaking for Biden, they are both beating her decisively in the primary, where Bernie leads and Biden comes in second:

She isn't the only one with bad new from the new poll though. Beto probably isn't thrilled with the 8% result-- between Mayor Pete at 11% and Kamala at 7%. The Massachusetts poll isn't the first that is showing Beto not quite catching on the way his backers had hoped he would. The original excitement has largely petered out. As David Siders wrote at Politico yesterday, reality is biting him in the butt. He's not anywhere near the one percent club but he's also nowhere near front-runners Bernie and Biden and he's seen the excitement for Mayor Pete cut into his own magic. "The euphoria that greeted O’Rourke’s entry into the race three weeks earlier," wrote Siders, "has started to subside. The inevitable slog of competing in a packed Democratic primary is underway, and O’Rourke has not yet drawn the wave of national adulation from the left that his Senate run against Ted Cruz last year received.

In Iowa, where everyone is fighting it out, it is "Sanders-- not O'Rourke-- [who] remains far ahead in polling and fundraising, while the putative front-runner, former Vice President Joe Biden, inches toward running."

O’Rourke was conciliatory after a rally-goer in Grinnell questioned his record on climate change while in the House, acknowledging there are “some votes that I would rethink or maybe cast in a different direction.”

Asked what votes he would reconsider, O’Rourke told reporters, “I’ll try to get you a more complete answer in the future, because I would need to take a look at those votes. I don’t have them all memorized.”

Until recently a basically unknown congressional backbencher with no legislative accomplishments, it was definitely not policy that has propelled Beto's political celebrity. But now people are starting to wonder where he stands on issues-- in Chris Hayes' formulation, who and what he'll fight for.

Sunday he stepped into the political minefield known as Israel, where he botched an attempt to take a progressive stand but wound up freaking out strong supporters of Israel. Zack Budryk reported for The Hill that he called Netanyahu a racist, not an unreasonable accusation but one that politicians pay dearly for by saying out loud. Trump is looking for these kinds of remarks to clobber Democrats with.

Asked in Iowa City Sunday if his criticism of Netanyahu risked alienating supporters of Israel, O’Rourke drew a distinction between support for Israel and support for Netanyahu.

“The US-Israel relationship is one of the most important relationships that we have on the planet, and that relationship, if it is successful, must transcend partisanship in the United States, and it must be able to transcend a prime minister who is racist, as he warns against Arabs coming to the polls, who wants to defy any prospect for peace as he threatens to annex the West Bank, and who has sided with a far-right racist party in order to maintain his hold on power,” O’Rourke said, referring to Netanyahu seeking to form a coalition with the Otzma Yehudit party.

Netanyahu, O’Rourke said, does not represent either the best interests of the U.S.-Israel relationship or a path to peace in the region.

“We must be able to transcend his current leadership to make sure that the alliance is strong, that we continue to push for and settle for nothing less than a two-state solution, because that is the best opportunity for peace for the people of Israel and the people of Palestine,” O’Rourke said.

The Trump administration is reportedly delaying the release of its Middle East peace plan until after Israel’s April 9 election, which will spare Netanyahu from having to go on record about the plan as he seeks re-election.