Beto Has To Walk A Tightrope, But So Far, So Good. And He Got A Break

While Beto O’Rourke was running to unseat GOP Governor Greg Abbott, he got the kind of break that no sane candidate wants. A mass school shooting leaving 19 children and 2 teachers dead. But then Abbott had to go and step on his crank, and give a fact free presser on the night of the shooting, and Beto had room. He could criticize Abbott for being so abysmally misinformed without mentioning the tragedy itself.

There is no question that the tragedy changed the trajectory of the race. Before the Uvalde school shooting, Abbott had a comfy 14 point lead. In the weeks following the shooting, abbott’s lead shrank to 5 points. Worse yet, Texas polling shows surging support for the kind of common sense gun reform that Abbott opposes.

But O’Rourke has to walk a tightrope here. If he hammers Abbott for being partially responsible for any part of the tragedy, he can be accused or seen as trying to use a human tragedy as a campaign prop. But the longer this cover up goes on, the worse it gets for Abbott, and O’Rourke has to capitalize somehow.

Beto appeared on The Last Word tonight with Lawrence O’Donnell, ostensibly to discuss the leaked Robb Elementary School surveillance video, and he did a masterful job of it. First of all, he never once referred to Abbott by name, preferring to use State leadership, or government leadership, a neat Trick since the GOP has a nipple clamp on statewide government. This also provides close air support to other statewide Democrats, who can now piggyback on O’Rourkes statements.

More impressive was Beto’s handling of the tragedy. He took it indirectly. Beto related that last weekend he had been in Uvalde, to meet with to meet with the parents and family members of the teachers and students, and to take part in a march the families and students had set up to demand the kind of common sense gun reform Abbott opposes. And as he aid those positions out, he did so as repeating what the families had told him, and not speaking for himself. You can’t do it much better than that, a degree of separation.

And for being good, O’Rourke got a gift. Texas temperatures have climbed up into the triple digits. Aww, poor babies, it was 114 here in Vegas today. But while I sit in air conditioned comfort, Texas’s corrupt power company has asked residents to bump up their thermostats from 10a-8p, and stop using high power appliances in order to avoid rolling blackouts. Apparently the company has already burned through the reserves they were trying to save for August, when Shit gets real.

Now this is something Beto can get his teeth into. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that a severe winter ice storm and cold snap crippled pretty much the entire Texas electrical grid. More than 200 Texans died. What the hell has Greg Abbott been doing since the electrical disaster? What lessons has he learned? What steps for improvement in the system has he Mandated?

Beto O’Rourke can’t ignore the Uvalde shooting, Abbott and his incompetent crew have made sure the leaks will continue until election day, but he seems to have that one covered, at least for now. But the Texas power shortage story is only going to degenerate throughout the summer, and that is fertile ground for Beto and the Democrats to plow. Texas is going to be interesting this November.