David Brooks is right about one thing; Cory Booker is running as a healer, not a fighter. I’ve often referred to Booker as Obama Lite, because he’s an African-American man with some of the same qualities as Obama, but not to the same degree. He doesn’t have the same exotic biography or the same gifts of rhetoric. He’s not a hot and spicy chicken wing; he’s mild.
Booker has two significant things going for him. First of all, he has a good chance to win a general election by putting the Obama coalition back together again. Second, he would be generally acceptable to all of the quadrants of the Democratic coalition. He is, in a way, the lowest common denominator.
Is that good enough for the Democrats in 2020? Will they settle for a healer instead of a fighter? I doubt it; I think Harris is going to prevail in the minority lane and be one of the three finalists, along with Sanders and Biden. But it’s early days, and no one really knows anything yet.