Senator Amy Klobuchar evidently thinks giving a speech in the cold is the same thing as having the “grit” needed to be President of the United States.
She’s got a lot to learn about grit.
It certainly doesn’t take grit to kowtow to the richest, most powerful companies in the history of the world. But that’s exactly what Klobuchar did when she promised Google, Facebook, Amazon, and all the other Silicon Valley giants the “net neutrality” policies they’re begging for.
Of course, she tried to hide that capitulation to Big Tech behind a facade of “grit.” She called Big Tech out for data-mining and “stealing” your identity. It’s hard to believe that she’s really going to stand up to the Googles and Amazons of the world, however, when her opening gambit is to hand their lobbyists one of their biggest goals by supporting the Obama-era internet regulation.
“Grit” also doesn’t describe handing out red-meat to your base with zero suggestions as to how to deliver on those high-flying promises. Yet, Klobuchar vaguely pledges to “believe in science,” saying she will enact “sweeping legislation” to fight climate change while delivering “green jobs.”
That sort of wishful thinking just isn’t going to cut it in 2020, when the Democrat nominee will have to face off against an incumbent President with a track record of fulfilling his promises. Anybody can make promises, but it takes a real leader to follow through on those promises — and for more than two years, Donald Trump has proven himself to be just such a leader.
President Trump promised jobs and energy independence during the 2016 presidential election campaign. That wasn’t shameless pandering or impossible dreaming. He delivered.
In 2018, America recorded its lowest unemployment rate since 1969. We’re now a net oil exporter for the first time in 75 years. And, as long as a Democrat like Klobuchar doesn’t get into the White House and cripple our energy sector with taxes and regulations, we’re on track to achieve total energy independence by 2022.
Someone willing to throw all that away and shackle the U.S. economy with a farcical and ineffective international climate agreement doesn’t have “grit.” They have poor judgment. And someone who promises that “green jobs” are going to magically pick up the slack is taking you for a fool.
Even on a personal level, Sen. Klobuchar seems to have a very funny idea of what makes someone “tough.”
“I can be tough,” is not only her pitch for why people should pick her as the Democratic nominee; it’s also her explanation for the widespread reports of her inexcusable behavior towards her own staff.
If the reports are true, behind closed doors Klobuchar is a childish, narcissistic diva prone to throwing objects at employees; launching into extended rants at hapless staffers; and sending long-winded, hyperbolic emails insulting her own staff. The problem is apparently so bad that even Harry Reid, the famously tempestuous former leader of the Senate Democrats, felt the need to tell her to cool it.
At some point, Amy Klobuchar is going to realize that being the President of the United States takes a bit more grit than running for Senate in a reliably blue state and issuing empty red-meat promises. Maybe that’s a lesson she’ll learn on the campaign trail, but so far, she’s displayed nothing that suggests she’s ready to do the President’s job.
Jennifer Carnahan is the chairwoman of the Republican Party of Minnesota.
