Why not? Isn’t Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez injecting new energy into the Democratic Party with her social-media prowess and TV sparkle? CNN finds some old white dude to declare that she doesn’t speak for the party, and that she’s pushing the 2020 election from “a slam dunk for Democrats to something where we’re gonna have trouble beating this guy.”

Of course, the old white dude in question is the former governor of Pennsylvania and a one-time DNC chair. But what does Ed Rendell know about, er, blue-collar, working-class swing districts? Pfft:

"AOC does not speak for the Democratic Party."

Former Pennsylvania governor and DNC Chair @GovEdRendell says Democrats risk losing the 2020 election if they keep moving to the left. @jasoncarrollcnn reports. https://t.co/12KWmQdwwO pic.twitter.com/RKV3U1LZjT

— CNN (@CNN) March 22, 2019

Rendell’s fooling himself. Ocasio-Cortez may not have a formal role in speaking for the party, but the Democratic socialists are clearly in the driver’s seat. The current crop of presidential candidates and their pandering on idiocies like the Green New Deal make that painfully clear, especially to the voters Rendell knows so well.

CNN’s Jason Carroll relates a very telling anecdote at the end. He was working on another story entirely until the couple featured in the clip brought up AOC themselves. She’s so ubiquitous, and so clearly in tune with the direction in which Democrats are shifting, that it’s obvious even to ordinary voters. If Donald Trump and the RNC do a better job of on-the-ground organizing than they did in 2016, then yes, Democrats are “gonna have trouble beating this guy,” even though all they really needed to do in 2020 is not be crazy.