Politico published a fascinating analysis of Cory Booker’s slippery career as Mayor of Newark.
We previously learned in Dale Russakoff’s book “The Prize” about Booker’s rock-star status among the powerful New York City elites and his less than stellar performance as Mayor of Newark. Booker is a hero to Democrats for Education Reform, the group that always bets against public schools.
In this article, Amy S. Rosenberg digs into the myth of Cory Booker, his careful polishing of his image and his efforts to cement his ties to the rich and powerful, while keeping his eyes on the opportunity to move up and out of Newark. Rosenberg does not assess Booker’s big project of turning Newark into a national model of school reform, which was his single biggest failure.
What did he actually accomplish? Is Newark better off today because of Booker?
One thing we know for sure is that Cory Booker is tied at the hip to those who want to get rid of public education. He is close to Chris Christie and helped the governor run the public schools of Newark into to the ground, while persuading Mark Zuckerberg to fork over $100 million to turn Newark into a city of charters. We know how that worked out.
Booker became a darling of Manhattan neoconservatives because he supported both charters and vouchers.
It worked for Booker. It didn’t work for the children of Newark.
Now Booker is angling to become Hillary Clinton’s vice-presidential choice.
Let’s keep our fingers crossed that it never happens.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The thought of that makes me ill. Him as VP and if she keeps John King? I read Russakoff’s book and he took all the credit and did no work at all to help Newark. As soon as he became senator he abandoned them to Cami Anderson and the “consultants”. What a nightmare.
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What difference would it make if Hillary picked Booker for VP? What does he bring to the table that Hillary doesn’t already bring?
In any case, what does it matter who she picks? Unless whoever it is ends up ascending to the presidency (which, as much as I don’t like Hillary, is not something I wish for), he or she will have no power anyway. Hillary could pick a “progressive” like Warren or even Sanders himself (not that that will happen), but it won’t change what her administration will be like.
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I agree with you. Hillary has the African American vote in the bag. She doesn’t need Booker as he is also from the northeast. How about a Latino? The Democrats owe them plenty.
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All I know is he went into a burning building and rescued someone. Tough to beat. Good that we are learning more about his policies – and it is impt to get the word out in time.
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I read Amy’s book and am certainly hope Hillary is not going to make him Secretary of Education. His public persona (carefully crafted) does seem not to be more than skin deep.
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The new Democrats !: In 2012, I remember Booker defending Romney and vulture capitalism . That Newt Gingrich popularized the phrase and yet Democratic rock stars like Booker and Randell defended it, is if not Orwellian perhaps simply corrupt.
In the usual dog and pony show the Democratic platform will support all that is undo-able yet not take a stand on anything that is contrary to the wishes of their corporate overlords. Clinton knowing that the choice is her or Trump will do anything she pleases.
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Thanks for noticing his slippery slope and sloppy situation. Heaven help us PLEASE do not make him the VP!!!! WHO CAN TALK TO WHOM???? We know more than we want to and actually as you see he is totally transparent. even ghost-like! YIKES>
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Don’t forget Cory Booker’s defense of Bain Capital, which was funneling money to him:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXpALlY4SVU
Wonder why?
“A ThinkProgress examination of New Jersey campaign finance records for Booker’s first run for Mayor — back in 2002 — suggests a possible reason for his unease with attacks on Bain Capital and venture capital. They were among his earliest and most generous backers.
Contributions to his 2002 campaign from venture capitalists, investors, and big Wall Street bankers brought him more than $115,000 for his 2002 campaign. Among those contributing to his campaign were John Connaughton ($2,000), Steve Pagliuca ($2,200), Jonathan Lavine ($1,000) — all of Bain Capital. While the forms are not totally clear, it appears the campaign raised less than $800,000 total, making this a significant percentage.”
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/05/21/488002/bain-financial-industy-gave-over-565000-to-newark-mayor-cory-booker-for-2002-campaign/
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Good link. Thanks.
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Choosing such a divisive figure for a running mate would be self-defeating. She would lose millions of progressive votes. The Sanders negotiation of a more progressive platform and following endorsement are not enough to get those votes. The Hillary Campaign needs to continue to court her educated, progressive base, and running with a junior senator who has open ties to Wall Street will not do that. And she won’t pull any conservative leaning independent voters with Booker either. Anyone who wants Clinton to beat Trump might want to do a little more than cross his or her fingers and hope this doesn’t happen. Hillary should be asking herself, “Who would Bernie pick?”
On the other hand, I am personally not worried about a Booker selection. After all, there is a widespread belief that Vice President of the United States is becoming a dead end job. How many VPs have gone on to become president in the last 50 years?
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Two?
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Nixon, Ford, Bush? Did I miss anyone? Gore certainly came close. Some people think he won.
I don’t think we should discount the VP position as a path to the presidency. Biden might have done well had he run. Being VP would launch Booker onto the national stage in a big way.
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Eric: LBJ
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Good point about Biden, although Nixon was no longer VP when he won the presidency, and Ford became POTUS under unusual circumstances, Watergate. He didn’t win an election. I forgot about the Gore tragedy/travesty. Technically though, Papa Bush was the only concurrent VP to win the big election.
I certainly would not want Booker to be in the Oval Office. The speech he yelled in the Senate about an ESSA amendment was over the top with reforminess. I half expected him to pull out Rhee’s broom and start waving it around. It’s just that there’s so much to fear for my public school district these days, these years, I tend to grasp for any soothing idea I can concoct when confronted with the possibility of as many as sixteen more years straight of privatizers in the White House. I don’t see how we could survive.
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LBJ became POTUS the day the music died. (And a little over 50 years ago.)
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Actually, I just pulled the number fifty out the air. And you guys got me curious, so I looked it up. The last concurrent VP before Bush to win a presidential election was Teddy Roosevelt in 1900. I don’t mean to argue with you, though. I have nothing but deep respect.
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Thanks, Eric. Don’t know how I missed George the Elder.
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Must be a cold summer in Missouri. Sigh.
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Why we need a viable third party, real, real soon!!!
Our two parties are tied at the hip to tied-at-the-hipsters, or worse.
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No, what we need is to get rid of those two parties completely. Pass anti-corruption legislation (which would include making parties illegal in the first place)
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Shandy,
The billionaires would LOVE to get rid of political parties. Bloomberg twice promoted legislation in New York City to make all elections nonpartisan, and twice the voters rejected it. With no parties, only billionaires have the resources to compete for office.
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I just flipped on the cable news and the ticker across the screen said retired Admiral James G. Stavridis isn’t being vetted for the position.
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Sorry… IS being vetted. Auto-incorrection.
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I read that. I wouldn’t want anybody from the military. Hillary’s hawkish foreign policy already scares me to death. I wouldn’t even want Stavridis as Secretary of Defense. He was against the Iran accord. He seems to be where Hillary is getting her talking points about “smart” power, which seems anything but. I really don’t see how I can vote for her.
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I’m with you, Rebecca. Above, I brought up the idea of Clinton trying to get right leaning independent votes. That’s what Third Way politicians try to do. That’s what choosing from the military for VP would do, get some right leaners. She would even pull some frustrated Repugs. The Third Way takes the left for granted as much as possible. They campaign from the false center and then govern from the right. I want Monty Brewster to run. At this point, I would vote for the fictional character.
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I swear, if Clinton does that, I will not vote for her. Booker is an opportunist who only looks out for himself. He is a classic politician looking to use one office to springboard to another. He is not respected in the Black community among those actually working to help Make things better. But, on second thought, this is exactly the type of person Clinton t could use to her advantage. All show, no substance.
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“All show, no substance” –that’s the impression I got when I saw him interviewed on Bill Maher.
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By the way, while Booker likes to be identified with Newark, he attended the same upper middle class New Jersey high school as Bill Maher.
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Otherwise known as “all hat, no cattle.”
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🙂 🙂
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I’m glad for some actual reporting on the liberals’ favorite politician. I thought education advocates were the only ones who had criticisms of Booker. This article makes him seem simply incompetent at managing a bureaucracy. No wonder his impulse with schools is to scrap the whole system.
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I never did understand why the so-called “liberals” liked Cory Booker so much. He is nothing if not a Wall Street loving corporatist.
Actual, dyed in the wool liberals are not fooled by him.
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Cory Booker is an extremely intelligent politician with a great deal of charisma. He could go far if he backed away from wall street!
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I don’t think so, Tim. But he has worked like crazy to cultivate that image of “intelligence” and “charisma” but he is an absolute and total phony; a tool of education privatizers, hedge fund miscreants and wealthy tax cheats.
Anyone who trusts ANYTHING Cory “Christie’s Buddy” Booker says is either woefully uninformed and/or part of the gang that wants to move BOTH political parties as far to the right as possible.
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The Ohio Democratic Party recently referred to Cory Booker as the future of the Democratic Party. If so, we can expect the party to continue to carve out its niche, as the party that serves Wall Street and Silicon Valley moguls. And, more of us will abandon the two-party process.
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Hillary will want females to vote for her, and blacks to vote for Booker. You don’t think Booker would bring the black demographic votes for Hillary? Sure he would. Just like Obama pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes and the rug out from public schools, and yet, he garnered the majority of the black vote. I read it somewhere online it was upwards of 90%. Obama did exactly what he was meant to do – get the vote, get the confidence of young voters, black voters, ethnic voters, life-long democrats, and then BANG – betray everyone. Who better than to stab you in the back than someone you trusted because “hey, he’s like me?”
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@Tim ^O^
Wall Street is where the money is. It is driving our entire society, calling the shots for everything. Why have Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown, et al been neutered and signing up for Oligarch duty?
Follow the money. We are screwed.
We need a viable third party.
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-because “keeping our fingers crossed” is as close to engaging in real political activism based on genuine free thought as complacent America is likely to ever get ;(
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He had a cozy relationship with former Mayor Bloomberg also. He did nothing for Newark except build visibility and win the “support” of those who use him as a “link” to support their agenda in the communities where he is perceived as “influential.”
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Published on May 9, 2012
In the space of less than 20 years, the public school privatization movement has emerged from the narrow, right wing fringes to dominate both major political parties. From vouchers to school choice to charter schools, the issue has divided even Black Americans, who were once public education’s most fervent supporters. Glen Ford explains how this came about by wealthy individuals buying black politicians and promoting their careers, particularly Corey Booker.
Glen Ford is a veteran of more than 40 years in broadcast, print and Internet journalism. A former Washington Bureau Chief and White House, Capitol Hill, and State Department correspondent, he is currently Executive Editor of Black Agenda Report (BlackAgendaReport.com), a weekly magazine of news, commentary and analysis from the Black Left. Along with co-host Nellie Hester Bailey, Ford hosts and produces the weekly, one-hour Black Agenda Radio program on the Progressive Radio Network.
Sponsored by LifeLines and Peace and Justice Task Force of All Souls Church. Event May 9, 2012 Camera, sound Joe Friendly
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Thank you for posting these superb Glen Ford videos. They are worth the time required to hear the real story about Cory Booker. The man is TRULY a person worthy of zero trust, paid for and created by the right wing Manhattan Institute and the even further right Bradley Foundation.
Spread the word about this “Manchurian Candidate”, Cory Booker. It will be an unmitigated disaster if Hillary chooses him, analogous in many ways to Dwight Eisenhower’s selection of the then young Richard Nixon—also a new senator at the time—and arguably the worst mistake made by Ike.
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An old article ( 2010) but informative.
Cory Booker: A clear and present threat to public education
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/cory-booker-clear-and-present-threat-public-education
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I’m still not seeing how Booker is any worse than Clinton.
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I see a difference, but maybe it is because I want to see it. Booker was one of the key players behind the Newark takeover. Hillary, to my knowledge, has never made a direct, hostile move toward public schools. When she was a senator from NY, she always supported public schools. We know she is connected to Wall St, and many of her associates and donors are privatizers. What she would do remains to be seen.
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I think you’d have to ask the people of Arkansas about her relationship with public schools when she was first lady there. I think they might use the words “direct” and “hostile”. And, again, she’s best friends with Eli Broad, who is most definitely direct and hostile. And John Podesta is one of her campaign managers.
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Cory Booker left a $90+ million deficit for his successor and Newark council to deal with when he eased on down the road to Washington, DC. Senator Lautenberg’s death was timely for Booker’s career.
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I’m glad you mentioned Senator Lautenberg, who came out of retirement and held on to his former senate seat as long as he could, privately telling people his fear that if it became vacant, “this Cory Booker guy” could seize it. Lautenberg made it clear that he had zero trust in him and considered him a tool of Wall Street and big capital.
Unfortunately Frank Lautenberg died in office which gave Booker his opening, and Booker also received a “gift” in the general election, running against one of the most extremist right-wing Republicans in NJ history.
Don’t let Booker get more power. He’ll be an “Order Taker” for the wealthy elite that created him to begin with and public education will face the greatest threat yet if he gets that much closer to the White House.
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Cory Booker is a good friend and political ally of Chris Christie. They agree on almost everything, particularly on the need to “privatize” education. This “funny” video, produced by Christie’s shills, shows the “good buddies” Booker and Christy, “joking” around, obviously on the same page, personally and politically. (Watch it only if you can stomach it. It’s truly repulsive.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHN0ZeS5c-4&feature=related
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Also, on May 4, 2012, Cory Booker gave a rousing, anti-public schools, anti-union speech at an “Education Reform” in Jersey City, sponsored by ALEC and the Koch Brothers.
The other main speakers at this conference were Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal and some pundit from Fox “News”. Most accounts say that Cory Booker’s speech was even more right-wing and extremist than those delivered by the two Republican governors. The ultra-conservative audience loved it and were brought to their feet, whooping and yelling their approval. http://www.afcpolicysummit.com
This speech was just “the tip of the iceberg” for Cory Booker when it comes to public education. Booker is doing the bidding of private, for-profit firms and Wall Street, helping them with their long-term plans to eliminate free, universal public schools.
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