Last November, after his loss to Senator Ted Cruz, former Congressman and current presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke insisted that he would not run for president because of his concern about the time he would lose with his family, arguing that he and his wife had three young children to raise. O’Rourke said on CBS’ 60 Minutes, “I don’t wanna do it. I will not do it. Amy and I are raisin’ an 11-year-old, a 10-year-old and a 7-year-old. And we spent the better part of the last two years not with each other, missing birthdays and anniversaries and time together. And we—we—our—our family could not survive more of that. We, we need to be together.”
It’s mighty peculiar how O’Rourke’s position has changed in four months; along the way, he kept a blog while he traveled around the country, writing in mid-January, “Have been stuck lately. In and out of a funk. Maybe if I get moving, on the road, meet people, learn about what’s going on where they live, have some adventure, go where I don’t know and I’m not known, it’ll clear my head.”
That funk has apparently dissipated to the point that O’Rourke can see clearly that the country is in mortal danger; In a video announcing his run for the presidency, O’Rourke brandished the usual Democrat cudgel filled with hyperbole, waxing eloquent this way: “The challenges that we face right now, the interconnected crises in our economy, our democracy, and our climate, have never been greater, and they will either consume us, or they will afford us the greatest opportunity to unleash the genius of the United states of America, In other words, this moment of peril produces perhaps the greatest moment of promise for this country and for everyone inside of it.”
Funny how that works; the economy is in great shape; our democracy isn’t in any danger, no matter how much the Democrats rant that President Trump is a dictator, and the climate change hysteria that the Left foments has been over-the top for some time and has been comprehensively challenged, but O’Rourke is not going to let facts get in the way of his apocalyptic rhetoric.
Or his change of position regarding time with his family.
Transcript from O’Rourke’s interview with 60 Minutes interviewer Jon Wertheim below:
Wertheim: Is that reversible? You’re saying you’ll, you’ll never run for president?
O’Rourke: I’m saying that if elected to the Senate, I’ll serve every day of that six-year term, that I’m not lookin’ at 2020. And, and, in fact, am completely ruling that out, not going to do that.
Wertheim: No matter what? Win or lose you’re not gonna run–
O’Rourke: Win or lose–
Wertheim: –in 2020?
O’Rourke: Win or lose, I’m not– I’m not running in, in 2020. I gotta tell you, it’s incredibly flattering that anyone would ask me the question or that that’s even up for discussion. But, but since people have asked, the answer’s no.
Wertheim: You didn’t sidestep that.
O’Rourke: No.