“In many ways, O’Rourke is reminiscent of Barack Obama in 2008, a relatively blank slate with rock star popularity. To capitalize on that popularity, however, Beto must get his campaign organized and show backers that he has the depth to mount a serious national campaign… At this point, the greatest threat to Beto is a Joe Biden candidacy… [but] without Biden in the race, the non-Bernie vote will splinter between the numerous other candidates and O’Rourke has a chance to come out on top.”
David Thornton, The Resurgent

Some, however, point out that “as much as Obama ran on inspirational slogans and his own biography in his first campaign, he also presented Democratic voters with a substantive alternative to Clinton. Virtually alone among the 2008 candidates, Obama could honestly say that he had opposed the Iraq war from the beginning, and that both set him apart from his main competitors and helped to neutralize criticism of his lack of experience. O’Rourke doesn’t have a signature issue in the same way that Obama did, and he doesn’t have anything else he can point to in his record that the many other more experienced candidates lack.”
Daniel Larison, The American Conservative

“For a progressive who sees the Obama years mostly as a case of promise squandered, with O governing from the center-left and using his personal charisma to keep left-wing critics at bay, this must be like watching a shoddy remake of a movie you didn’t much like to begin with. Beto lacks Obama’s compelling racial narrative… and his policy views are deliberately less well-defined. All he has, really, is the hopenchange shtick down — and that was still good enough to top even Bernie Sanders in fundraising.”
Allahpundit, Hot Air

Regarding media coverage, many are critical of Reuters for waiting until now to publish revelations that Beto was a member of a criminal hacking group and wrote stories glorifying violence as a teenager. “The journalist defended his actions, saying that he couldn't have gotten confirmation from O'Rourke without pledging to hold back what he knew until the election was over… [but] wrote in his own story that he had ‘more than a dozen’ named sources for his book. Are we to believe that there was no way on earth he could have gotten this story without this quid pro quo? It's possible, but many will have their doubts…

“If the subject of the story had been a Republican, would Reuters have decided that willfully withholding major information about a candidate's past was an acceptable journalistic decision -- or would they have pulled out all the stops to get pertinent facts to voters? I don't have to tell you how most media-suspicious conservatives would answer that question.”
Guy Benson, Townhall