This close to November’s midterms—which TDS charter member Larry Sabato, still running the University of Virginia’s allegedly non-partisan Center For Politics, suggests will be a “blue tsunami,” bold at this juncture, and will either land in him Ann Selzer territory, or on a pedestal—it’s fair for the antsy commentariat to cast their lot with prospective 2028 Democratic presidential nominees. Several weeks ago, Nicholas Kristof, still employed at The New York Times despite about a dozen infractions that a long-ago editor like Abe Rosenthal would’ve fired him for, all but endorsed Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, playing up his appeal to “ordinary folks.”
Atlantic staff writer Elaine Godfrey, who at least has the excuse of being young (now 32, she graduated from Iowa State University in 2015), wrote a long essay on September 18th that was a schoolgirl mash note to Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, an incumbent heading for such an easy victory that he’s already (not officially) trying to elbow aside Gavin Newsom and Kamala Harris for the 2028 prize. I doubt self-inflicted embarrassment is common among The Atlantic’s large roster of writers who Pledge Allegiance to the Flag of Democratic Party of America, and if any editor there spoke to Godfrey about toning down the gushing about Ossoff’s physical attributes, he or she kept the red pencil/delete button on hold.
Godfrey lays out her priorities/wish in the first two paragraphs of “Jon Ossoff Is Doing Something Different”: “If you’re a Democrat, attending a Jon Ossoff rally feels very good. Therapeutic, even. Many Democrats feel as if every day of the second Trump administration has brought some fresh horror: a discouraging development in the never-ending Iran war; a new vow of retribution from the 80-year-old leader of the free world; or the revelation of yet another money-making venture cooked up by the Trumps… But now, from the South, a young senator has emerged, with a deep voice promising change and a speaking cadence not unlike Barack Obama’s. His dark hair sits just so; his skin is perfectly even…”
It’s a sign of America’s micro-attention span that Godfrey calls the Iran war “never-ending,” since it began on February 28th of this year. The war was a hubristic blunder in my opinion—oil prices and the lack of a real Iranian resistance—and I’m surprised, given Trump’s maddening juggling of interests, that he hasn’t told Bibi to stuff it, declare victory and move on. But it’s not “never-ending,” like Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Godfrey, who attended a recent Ossoff rally in Athens, Georgia, says the 39-year-old father of two (meaning if he doesn’t run, it’s for the family) is “elegantly and comprehensively skewering the Trump administration,” with such gusto than one retiree at the rally told her that Ossoff reminds her of JFK. Naturally. Just like Gary Hart, Bill Clinton, John Edwards and Obama. I don’t think making fun of Trump’s “zealous” aide Natalie Harp is “elegant,” but I don’t write for The Atlantic.
She says, but doesn’t name anyone, that many Democrats are “breathlessly positioning him as the new favorite” to win the Democratic nomination in less than two years. Maybe Newsom, Harris—one of my sons is convinced Kamala will take it and I’ve put my money down disputing that—and Maryland’s do-nothing (but handsome and black) Gov. Wes Moore are the “old favorites.” I can’t juggle so many candidates at once, and apparently the Democratic Party establishment—under fire—can’t either. Fuck it, anoint Rahm Emanuel and skip right to the election against Marco Rubio. Joshing.
Godfrey’s got the Ossoff beat at The Atlantic—she wrote about another rally, this one in Atlanta in August—and I swear I can see heart and smiley face emojis on the screen as she swoons. At Athens, “During his speech, the crowd was treated to language equal parts poetic and damning.” I don’t think the Georgia Senator describing Trump as “the broken old man” is “poetic” or “biting,” more like Rod McKuen to me, but Yeats (if she’s read him) to Godfrey. One can forgive exuberance—for example, as a 20-year-old in 1976, I was nuts about Jerry Brown’s late run against Jimmy Carter—but Godfrey citing Ossoff’s line that “it pays to be a Trump, especially when the whole world knows Daddy’s a crook,” ignores that 99 percent of the “whole world” doesn’t know shit about the President’s skeezy money scams. They’ve got their own problems.
Ossoff, who declined to speak to The Atlantic for this story, has denied he has any interest in running for the presidency in 2028; as Graham Parker sang in 1976, “that’s what they all say,” or using the first President Bush’s catchphrase, “wouldn’t be prudent.” Digging another hole, Godfrey falls for this nonsense: “On the prediction-market platform Kalshi, Ossoff’s odds of winning [the nomination] are higher than any other Democrat’s.” Polls, betting “platforms”! Journalists routinely question the accuracy of polls, and then cite them for evidence to back up their agenda.
Godfrey does say that “progressives” aren’t sold on Ossoff, believing he’s too “moderate” and “generic.” Maybe they missed the poetry. In fact, the claim of “moderate” is simply a euphemism for Ossoff’s religion: he’s Jewish. Democrats are increasingly anti-Israel (particularly America’s continuation of foreign aid), and that precludes a Jewish standard-bearer. Ossoff is a young, handsome guy, who appears reasonably intelligent; and it’s likely he’s angling for the White House in eight years, unless in the interim he’s ensnared in a Gary Hart/John Edwards pickle.
—Follow Russ Smith on Twitter: @MUGGER2023