Once again, there is buzz about former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro as a possible VP pick for Hillary. Castro was given the position of Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services as part of grooming him for the national stage:
2016 identity politics: We’ll meet your Marco Rubio, and raise you a Julian Castro.
And prepping was what Castro needed, since as we pointed out in May 2014, Mayor Julian Castro of San Antonio had less responsibility than Mayor Sarah Palin of Wasilla since his position was part time and the city was run by a manager, not the Mayor:
I assumed that the position of Mayor of San Antonio was a serious job, like being the Mayor of many other big cities. While a spot on a presidential ticket for someone who never was more than a Mayor would be unusual, we have had Mayors like Rudy Guiliani make presidential runs.I gave Castro the benefit of the doubt on managerial and policy experience. I was wrong.It turns out that being Mayor of San Antonio involves no more responsibility than being Mayor of Wasilla, and maybe less….A rising Democratic star with almost no actual managerial or policy experience, who looks good on camera, gives good speeches, has a compelling “life story,” and will energize the Democratic base through identity politics. Nah, that couldn’t work.Oh, wait.
Politico (h/t Drudge) reports on the continuing effort to groom Castro. He’s even learning Spanish!
At home, Julián Castro’s been spending more time reading and watching television in Spanish, trying to get his speaking skills up to speed.On the job as Housing and Urban Development secretary, he’s been carefully working the levers in Washington, with coaching from Bill Clinton and a twin brother who’s a popular and up-and-coming congressman himself.Starting Saturday, he’ll be out on the trail for Hillary Clinton in in Nevada, Iowa and Maine.He’s plotted his rise carefully, studying and strategizing with a clear goal in sight. But if Clinton picks him to be her running mate, it’ll be more about perfectly fitting his party’s moment and the nearly non-existent Democratic bench than about his 18 months as a HUD secretary who hasn’t left a deep mark at his agency, the White House or the housing world.
Castro is afraid of real experience, because it might make him look bad if something went wrong on his watch. Politico further reports:
He said no to Homeland Security before anyone ever offered it, after a Democratic operative with White House ties reached out to gauge his interest in taking over for Janet Napolitano. No way, Castro and his tight circle of advisers decided. The concern wasn’t that he had no national security or law enforcement experience, but, according to people familiar with the conversations at the time, because: what if there was an attack on his watch? That would have ended the political career he’d started with a fundraiser with his twin brother among his Harvard Law classmates before they graduated.
If Hillary is the nominee, and Castro the Veep, expect the media to swoon. Particularly when he speaks Spanish, which by next summer he may have mastered.
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