You don’t run for president of the United States because you are modest, but the wrong-headed self-importance of Tulsi Gabbard’s campaign has gone from being a national political oddity to just becoming tedious.
Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District representative’s appearance on last week’s Democratic presidential primary debate had its own tortured backstory.
Gabbard started out begging supporters to send her money and working to be included in political polls that would qualify her for the Westerville, Ohio, stage.
Once on, she announced that she would boycott the debate because she thought the “corporate news media and Democratic National Committee” were rigging the debate.
The New York Times said such pronouncements would be loved by her base, “an unconventional mix of anti-interventionist progressives, libertarians, contrarian culture-war skeptics, white nationalists and conspiracy theorists.”
Clad in all-white, Gabbard appeared, apparently thinking that dancing with the devil was better than dancing alone.
She might as well have skipped it. Gabbard’s performance was both mediocre and weird. She broke no new ground, except to use the national spotlight to deny being a Russian stooge and again attack the news media.
“Just two days ago, The New York Times put out an article saying that I’m a Russian asset and an Assad apologist and all these different smears. This morning, a CNN commentator said on national television that I’m an asset of Russia. Completely despicable,” Gabbard said during the debate.
When asked her thoughts about President Donald Trump abandoning the Syrian war and leaving the Kurds at the mercy of the Turks, Gabbard said Trump has “has the blood of the Kurds on his hands, but so do many of the politicians in our country from both parties.”
Then Gabbard awarded a set of bloody hands to “many in the mainstream media, who have been championing and cheerleading this regime change war.”
Her not-very-successful attempt to shift the presidential debate around to her worries about regime change wars was noted by a panel of New York Times opinion writers.
“It seems she should fully embrace her isolationist tendencies and distaste for mainstream media and run on the Republican ticket,” said Bianca Vivion Brooks, a radio commentator.
And her using the debate to mention Syria’s despised President Bashar al-Assad was also noticed.
“The best way to show the world you aren’t an apologist for Assad is not to robotically repeat the same pro-
Assad phrase for five minutes,” wrote Jamelle Bouie.
Meanwhile back in Honolulu, state Sen. Kai Kahele, who is running for Gabbard’s congressional seat, was watching Gabbard failing to take an important congressional vote.
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to condemn Trump’s withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria. The vote had widespread Democrat and Republican support and was one of the most significant votes of this Congress.
“Unfortunately, the people of Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District were left without a voice because Congresswoman Gabbard, yet again, failed to show up and report to duty. Appearing on national television the night before is not an excuse to miss work,” Kahele said in a release.
Soon Gabbard is going to find that she is fighting neither imagined battles with the national news media, nor the Democratic National Committee or even Republicans. Gabbard will be struggling for relevancy as her moment in the sun passes.
Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.
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