Beto O’Rourke? Yes He Can (Earn a Second Chance).
It’s worth remembering as we size up the Democratic field that at around this point in 2007, the main thing most people were asking about Barack Obama was why he was such a flash in the pan.
He announced his candidacy to tremendous fanfare on that frigid day in Springfield, Illinois in February 2007. He started campaigning. Yes, he always registered pretty well in the polls, as there were really only three clear first-tier Democratic candidates that year, and only eight candidates overall (one of the also-rans was named Biden). Obama was a steady second. But—second. Distantly. He passed a somewhat meandering summer traversing Iowa but not catching fire.
It wasn’t until the Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner in Des Moines on November 10, 2007, when he delivered a tape-measure-shot speech that vaulted him into a virtual tie with Hillary Clinton in the state, which he of course went on to win.