Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and I go way back. So far back that I knew him before he ran for mayor of Newark the first time in 2002. Back when his every utterance had people swooning that he could be president one day. Yet, now that he is actually running for president, Booker is way down in the national polls and in the polls in Iowa and South Carolina. When I asked him why that is, Booker used history to make the case that he shouldn’t be counted out.
“Nobody from the Democratic Party in our lifetime has ever gone from leading in the polls this far out to be president of the United States,” Booker told me in the latest episode of “Cape Up” recorded at a dining room table in the house he owns in Newark. “The people who do win are exactly like me. They’re behind in the polls. [Jimmy] Carter at 1 percent around this time. I think Bill Clinton was around 4 percent. Right now, Barack Obama was behind Hillary Clinton. ... They were all considered long shots.”
That’s not all they have in common. Booker then articulated the two things the winning nominees had in common. “One is they’ve been the more unifying candidates, a message about our commonalities, our common purpose. They actually talk about our higher values. Carter after Nixon was talking about a return to decency and to grace in our country. Obama about hope. The other thing they have is understanding what it took to win in Newark. It’s the ability to organize in those early primary states in ways that can win. I think it’s the reason why John Kerry, [who] was polling at 4 percent, low single digits, went on to win,” Booker said. “So, when you ask me about what the metrics I’m concerned about right now, they’re definitely not polling in South Carolina this far out, is much more about the organizing we’re doing in Iowa.”