CINDERELLA HAS ARRIVED – AT 8:14 P.M. ET:  At least I think she has.  I refer, of course, to the new fairy-tale princess, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who won a Dem congressional nomination in New York by getting the votes of about eight percent of her district's registered Democrats.  A famous victory it was not, but you'd never know it from the scribblings of fawning journalists, taking a page direct from the "Obama come to save us" playbook.  From The Hill: 

Democrats are racing to figure out how to handle Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose primary win over a longtime incumbent is set to shake up the party’s Washington establishment.

I don't think they'll be shaken that quickly. 

Ocasio-Cortez’s shock victory over Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) made the 28-year-old an overnight sensation in the Big Apple and across the country, leading Democrats to bombard her with messages of congratulations and offers to cooperate in the future.

I guarantee you that most New Yorkers would not recognize her name. 

“The entire spectrum of House Democrats, party leadership, [campaign] leadership, is trying to assess what she wants to do and how ready she is to play ball,” said one Democratic source.
They want to know “how does her coming to Washington change my plan, or even help my plan?”

Democrats are largely thrilled to welcome the telegenic rising star to their ranks, though she is already ruffling some feathers.

Telegenic is the key word here.  She's attractive.  She's vibrant.  If she looked like Woody Allen and talked about socialism, the story would have been over in ten minutes.  And she certainly is rustling feathers.  It turned out her biography isn't quite as "poor girl makes good" as she first told us, some of her associations are troubling, and she really doesn't know what she's talking about.  She's getting her 15 minutes of fame.   Some in the press will cover for her.  But it's a manufactured story.

Ocasio-Cortez plans to hit the campaign trail for at least three other Democratic candidates in primary races this year who are backed by Justice Democrats, a PAC that supports progressives. 

Some of those "progressives" are actually regressive in their views, and are way outside the mainstream. 

Read the whole piece.  It's summer, and newspapers have to fill their columns with ink.

July 11, 2018