Jon Ossoff has some things going for him in tomorrow’s special congressional election in Georgia. He’s raised a ton more money than his Republican opponent, and the race does appear to have become a referendum on President Trump in a district Trump carried by only 1% in November.
But one thing Ossoff has going against him: his persona doesn’t fit this Southern, suburban district. That was the consensus of today’s Morning Joe panel. Even former Obama spokesman Josh Earnest [now an MSNBC analyst] conceded that, for this district, Ossoff is not a candidate “from Central Casting.”
Joe Scarborough had the unkindest cut of all, saying that Ossoff looks like “he could have been a walk-on in Warren Beatty’s ‘Reds,'” a movie about American Communists in Russia during the Revolution. Scarborough added that from the perspective of voters in the district, Ossoff looks like “he might be a Bernie Sanders Democrat.”
JOE SCARBOROUGH: I can only speak as a Republican that’s voted in Republican primaries for a long time. Looking at those two candidates, even with my disgust of everything that’s happened in the Trump administration, I know that people in that district like people in my district, like me, would be a lot more comfortable with a 55-year-old Southern Democratic businessman that was cut more out of the cloth of a Jimmy Carter or Zel Miller when he was a Democrat than Jon Ossoff who, Jeremy Peters, I’m sorry, you judge how people look. I joked when I first saw him, and I’m sure –JEREMY PETERS: He’s very youthful –JOE: He’s a great guy, I joked but there are some pictures where he looks like he could have been a walk-on in Warren Beatty’s “Reds” –MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Now, be nice!JOE: — 30, 40 years ago. He’s not, he’s not –PETERS: He’s got a great head of hair, though.JOE: A great head of hair. But you never trust people with a lot of hair. That’s what I’ve always said. You know what I’m saying? He doesn’t fit the prototype Southern Democrat –PETERS: — he does not.JOE: — that wins.PETERS: And he doesn’t live in the district, which is kind of a problem.JOE: If I’m a Republican and I’m angry at Trump for everything he’s done, I still would have trouble — I’m speaking for the people in that district and in my old district — going, am I going to vote for a guy who looks like he might be a Bernie Sanders Democrat?
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