THE MEDIA REALLY WANTS SHERROD BROWN IN THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE

One adverb in the lede of this Politico story tells you everything you need to know about whst the media thinks of Sherrod Brown:

Democrat Sherrod Brown just won reelection resoundingly in a Trump state running on Trump’s issues — taking a hard line on trade and helping blue-collar workers.

Now the Ohio senator is talking increasingly like he’s prepared to take on the president himself.

(Emphasis added.)

"Resoundingly"? Um, not really. He won by 6.4 points, a much smaller margin of victory than those of other possible 2020 presidential candidates -- Bernie Sanders (who won by 40 points), Kirsten Gillibrand (33 points), Amy Klobuchar (24.1 points, in a state Donald Trump nearly won in 2016), and Elizabeth Warren (24 points). Scandal-plagued Bob Menendez (who's obviously not running for president) even ran better than Brown -- he won by 10.6 points.

I don't mean to denigrate Brown, whom I like. Also, I realize he ran and won in a state that's becoming increasingly red. But it's clear that the press loves the idea that Democrats need to top their ticket with a white male who's a white-working-class whisperer and who occasionally agrees with Trump in order to win. If any of the candidates named above, including Klobuchar, had won by single digits, there's no way the win would have been called "resounding." Brown will do extremely in the media primary if he decides to run.