Liberal hero Cory Booker was a seemingly teflon Democrat star after a few years of being Newark’s resident superhero and celebrity mayor.
In addition to being young and handsome, Cory Booker is a social media notable , even reaching out and helping stranded Newark residents on Twitter when a heavy snowfall left some without diapers. But Booker’s most shining moment was probably when he ran into a burning building to save a Newark resident trapped by the conflagration.
It even kicked off a Cory Booker meme on the internet, not too dissimilar from the Chuck Norris one , known as “Cory Booker stories,” spinning fantastical tales of the Newark mayor’s badassery. Booker also in the past had a running, good-natured “feud” with talk show host Conan O’Brian after the latter joked that a Newark health initiative Booker spearheaded included a “bus ticket out of Newark.”
After O’Brien was banned from Newark Liberty , the pair made up — but Cory Booker had a far more high-profile dustup when he went way off-message and appeared to side with Mitt Romney instead of Barack Obama on the issue of Romney’s controversial company Bain Capital , and the effects of such behavior on the American economy.
The Cory Booker/Obama disagreement lasted a few days, and Republicans ran with the story — a situation where Booker expressed immediate dissatisfaction, but the damage was done. However, Booker says that he and Obama have had a chance to shake their sillies out, and last night the Newark mayor told Jay Leno:
“That’s the shame about the kind of politics we’re in. People often miss the essence of a man. We have a president, despite whether you’re on the right or on the left, he is a good person. He was the first person to come out and say, ‘Hey, you’re still my friend.’ “
Later, Leno asked Cory Booker if he’d run for governor in the event Chris Christie was selected as Mitt Romney’s running mate, and Booker dodged the question.
