Based upon the “ideal Democratic candidate” resume, this could have been Corey Booker’s year. He’s tall, black, handsome, athletic, overflowing with testosterone (by his own admission), a Stanford graduate, a Rhodes scholar, a Yale law graduate, and the holder of impeccable Progressive political credentials. He isn’t gay or female, but he’s sufficiently ambiguous (Is he gay? Is he straight?) that neither sexuality nor gender should have been a problem. On paper, he’s like Obama and Clinton rolled into one.

So what happened?

Corey Booker happened. He shows the problem with a political party that pins its hopes on external markers of diversity and on an obeisance to educational credentials. On paper, the guy looks great, but in fact, there’s no “there there.”

The problems started when Booker was Mayor of Newark, New Jersey. In the beginning, at least according to a loving media, it all seemed so good. He had those fantastic credentials, plus he was living in the “hood,” mixing it up with the people he served, as well as taking salary cuts. He got off to a good start, lowering crime and convincing Mark Zuckerberg to donate $100 million to the Newark school system.  He shoveled driveways, and saved women from fires and dogs from freezing. This was a guy on his way up.

But then there were the little things: What most people remember is his stories about his drug-dealing friend “T-Bone,” a man never proven to have existed. Also, there’s been that ongoing debate about whether Booker managed or mismanaged the huge Zuckerberg donation.

Still, Booker retained enough popularity in Newark, and the press still loved him enough, that he became a United States Senator for New Jersey. He was not a standout in that role. Instead, he was just another solid Progressive vote.

It was with the Brett Kavanaugh nomination that Booker really distinguished himself.  Booker's ambition to become President was so palpable that he made himself a laughingstock.  He made a speech insisting that he was violating Senate rules by releasing documents that the Senate Judicial Committee had classified. And in that context, Booker proudly proclaimed, “this is the closest I’ll get to an ‘I am Spartacus’ moment.”

Except it turned out that the Senate Judicial Committee had already declassified the documents. The jokes instantly wrote themselves. Indeed, they may follow him forever, for this was the squib on Fox New’s homepage regarding Booker’s decision to withdraw from the race (a squib that inspired this post's title and has since rolled on into oblivion after being captured in this screen grab).

What really foiled Booker, though, was the fact that the debates gave Americans of all colors the chance to get to know him. It was then that they discovered that he’s a self-aggrandizing lightweight. A born follower who wanted to be a national leader. And basically a non-entity.

Booker’s diversity chops, Ivy League resume, and solid Progressive credentials simply weren’t enough to convince voters that he was strong enough or interesting enough to lead them to their Progressive paradise. Indeed, it now looks as if voters are throwing diversity out the window.

Blacks seem to be strong in their support for Joe Biden, presumably because of his association with Obama, and other Democrat voters are coalescing around the even older white guy, the spit-flecked, angry Bernie Sanders. At a guess, Bernie is inspiring Democrat voters because he actually believes in something. It's just too bad that what Bernie believes is the totally discredited socialism that was responsible for more than 100 million deaths in the 20th century and the endless misery of those who survived socialism.