Claiming to be "realistic," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went on the record Wednesday, apparently predicting that the City of Miami won't exist "in a few years" due to climate change:

When it comes to climate change, what is not realistic is not responding … with a solution on the scale of the crisis — because what's not realistic is Miami not existing in a few years. We need to be realistic about the problem.

Her use of a double-negative — "what's not realistic is Miami not existing in a few years" — appears to have tripped her up.  Taken literally, she is stating the it's realistic to believe that Miami will exist in a few years.  That would be commonsensical, which makes it unlikely to be her intended meaning.

Just before she mentions Miami, she catches herself:

What is not realistic is not responding to the crisis...umm [she touches her head at this point] not responding to the solution on the scale of the crisis

There was nothing wrong with what she first started to say, so she must have been upset that she was not regurgitating the planned sound bite.

Ocasio-Cortez is now more popular with the Democrats' base than the party's most powerful elected official, Speaker Nancy Pelosi.  From Joe Battenfeld of The Boston Herald:

Bolstered by young voters and liberals, 34% of likely New Hampshire Democratic voters say they prefer party leaders like Ocasio-Cortez over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to the poll. Just 30% of Democrats say they prefer Pelosi over AOC.

The results show the increasing power of the freshman New York congresswoman in the party and indicate she's likely to have an impact on the 2020 race, especially at the party convention.

Among self-described liberals, when it comes to a choice between AOC and Pelosi, it's not even close. Forty-two percent of likely Democratic primary voters in New Hampshire say they prefer party leaders like Ocasio-Cortez, while just 17 percent pick Pelosi.

Because she is so young, age 29, she is reckoned to have a long political future ahead.  But with a prediction like this, in a few years, she is going to look foolish.  How many years are more than a "a few"?  Most people would agree that a decade is longer than "a few."

Of course, there are many people, Al Gore most prominently, who have issued deadlines for doom that have expired already, so maybe Ocasio-Cortez will skate on this very specific prediction of a city not existing.  But she will have political rivals for power among the Democrats, and they will be able to run this video.

Photo credit: YouTube screen grab.