For the life of me, I’ll never understand why Cory Booker’s presidential campaign never even made it to the pad, let alone why it never achieved liftoff. He began with as large a national profile as any of them except, possibly, Joe Biden. He had solid debate performances. He has a large and expansive personality. Then he announced and, well…nothing. His numbers petrified. When he dropped out of the race on Monday, he did so from a position that was pretty much the same one he held on the day of his announcement.
(One other curious thing: for years, Booker was sniped at from the left for being too close to Wall Street and the financial-services industry, which, since he’s a senator from New Jersey, is rather like Mitch McConnell’s relationship with tobacco magnates. But those same people virtually abandoned his campaign, so Booker now has been pilloried for drawing support from people who ghosted him when he ran for president.)
