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The Cajun Democrat who could shake up the 2020 field
Mitch Landrieu isn’t, for the moment, getting ready to run for president. But that’s not stopping the Democrat who led the rebuilding of New Orleans from speaking out against institutional racism and what he calls the “nightmare loop” that links Donald Trump to David Duke.
With a media tour for his new book, “In the Shadow of Statues” (out Tuesday), and after headlining this month’s media-fest Gridiron Dinner in Washington, Landrieu knows he’s kept people talking. Monday night on “The Daily Show,” he smiled through a long burst of applause when Trevor Noah pitched him on 2020. Ridiculous as he and everyone around him knows it is to think about a New Orleans mayor making a serious bid for the White House, they also see the unique profile he’d have in a huge Democratic field concentrated on the coasts — the white Southern liberal who loves wrestling and musical theater, and looks like he could blend right in at a Trump rally.
Barack Obama has taken note of Landrieu’s record as mayor and a speech he gave last year on removing Confederate monuments. The former president has said privately that he could see the appeal of a bald white guy from Louisiana talking up progressive politics in a Cajun accent. Though Obama is far from signing up, some notable players in his orbit are daydreaming of finding the next unlikely superstar and making it happen.
Landrieu sees the situation. He says he just doesn’t necessarily see himself as the solution.
With a media tour for his new book, “In the Shadow of Statues” (out Tuesday), and after headlining this month’s media-fest Gridiron Dinner in Washington, Landrieu knows he’s kept people talking. Monday night on “The Daily Show,” he smiled through a long burst of applause when Trevor Noah pitched him on 2020. Ridiculous as he and everyone around him knows it is to think about a New Orleans mayor making a serious bid for the White House, they also see the unique profile he’d have in a huge Democratic field concentrated on the coasts — the white Southern liberal who loves wrestling and musical theater, and looks like he could blend right in at a Trump rally.
Barack Obama has taken note of Landrieu’s record as mayor and a speech he gave last year on removing Confederate monuments. The former president has said privately that he could see the appeal of a bald white guy from Louisiana talking up progressive politics in a Cajun accent. Though Obama is far from signing up, some notable players in his orbit are daydreaming of finding the next unlikely superstar and making it happen.
Landrieu sees the situation. He says he just doesn’t necessarily see himself as the solution.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/21/mitch-landrieu-2020-democrats-473648?lo=ap_c1
