I mean this completely seriously:

Not with that attitude.

Maybe without that attitude it's still true, but we need more people than AOC even if they're not "as good"

TV news has effectively done the same for as long as I can remember - send a reporter out with a mic and cameraman and ask random people what they thought of current events.

As a European this is how I read it too. Politics in the US are so driven by "team sport" and grand personalities the actual policy sometimes gets forgotten. "He says what I think" and "I've always voted for party X." are very common arguments and you may occasionally hear about some wedge issue, but really understanding how these people would govern?

AOC has policy goals and fight for them regardless of her title. If she thinks she can there as President she will run, if not she will do something else.

I canvassed for Bernie. It was a good experience. And he won the state.

I phone banked for her in her 2018 campaign.

He's also incredibly sharp for 84....but he's 84...

He'll be 86 at the next election.

Shouldn't be getting downvotes for this. Bernie deserves to rest, he's been saying the same message for decades and it's up to us to make it better for him, now.

That's the same thing everybody said last time and Bernie is in better physical, mental, and psychological condition than Trump.

Of course, and because of that he would never win an election, because people won't vote for him because "he's too old". Like I said, I don't care about his age, or that he would likely die in office, perhaps even in the first year. I'd still vote for him, because I agree with him, and I want his ideas in that office. That's why he'd need a good V.P. I don't understand why anyone would care how old he is, as long as they agree with him. Is it because he would probably die in office? Why does that matter?

I don't care about Trump's age per se, I do care that he's got dementia. Bernie doesn't have dementia.

Anyway, it's a pipe dream, and I'll happily vote for one of his protégés, too.

The point of Bernie or AOC or Zohran or any socialist candidate is the movement behind them, which represents the will of the masses. The actual figurehead is largely irrelevant because everything they do is in the interest of their constituents. They might use their charisma to win (but usually it's the movement that actually wins the campaign), but once they're in power they just have to fulfill their promises, and they have staff to do this.

A regular politician, by contrast, enacts the will of the corporate class. In this way they're mostly irrelevant too.

More importantly, he's too old, and not aggressive enough, to win. We need someone that knows how to build and run a political machine, that can seize control of the party and purge the old guard. A true populist that can play a crowd. Bernie unfortunately lacks the killer instinct to overcome the establishment.

Bernie for president and AOC for vice president? That'd be something.

IF he died in office, the position likely would be taken good care of

Well they need to get out and start doing media now. Regardless, a successful candidate is going to have to out in hundreds of hours in front of cameras and developing a level of comfort and ease of answering questions that only comes with practice and putting in the hours. It's also one of my biggest critiques of AOC. She also hasn't/isn't putting in the reps in terms of media cycles. When they do, it's very controlled and brief.

AOC doesn't do very many hard interviews

Define "hard". If you mean antagonistic, that's because she wisely tries not to waste too much time and energy boosting the false narratives of the billionaire-owned mass media that bear a lot of the blame for how things got awful enough for fascism to return.

she gets a question asked of her that she isn't prepared for, she stumbles

As do pretty much anyone. Which is why she and most competent politicians make sure to be prepared for all possible pertinent questions.

It still depends btw: do you call refusing to entertain a deliberately false narrative "stumbling"?

AOC has been basically absent from leftwing media

That's a bit of an exaggeration but she's not made herself available as much as for example Ro Khanna, I'll give you that.

Ro and most of the ones making that many media appearances don't seem as genuine and principled, though.

Whether that's due to the sheer volume of gotcha questions or because they ARE less principled, that's not a good look to the ones they need to reach.

hard interviews in combative environments

AKA contributing to disinformation by accepting their clickbait false narratives as legitimately in the interest of the people.

AOC doesn't do that and is only does very controlled media opportunities.

Yeah, imagine preferring to talk about the REAL issues rather than how everyone to the left of Ronald Reagan are either immature children or dangerous radicals 🙄

That's not good for someone who wants to be president.

I'd argue the exact opposite. If you mud wrestle with a pig, the pig beats you with experience and you get filthy no matter how well you do.

I don't think she's done the time like others have to be able to weather a primary

Dude. The way she ENTERED politics was by going from volunteering for Bernie to unseating a 10-term incumbent who was the third ranking Dem representative in two years!

She has since easily beaten more right wing Dems favored by the DNC in primaries twice (and won unopposed except for the Republican nominee once).

If anyone knows how to beat overwhelming odds and win against the experienced establishment favorite, it's her.

But to be fair, when is the last time that is there wasn't a softball interview or debate? A huge portion of the US population have never seen a real debate lol