Exhibit A on Why People Should Take What the 'Experts' Say With a Grain of Salt

When it comes to "experts," we've seen a mixed bag in recent years, at least in terms of the ones who jump at the chance to appear on talking-head shows in order to opine on whatever the hot topic of the day/week happens to be.

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic and even beyond that, we saw an explosion in appearances of all kinds of purported experts on TV, radio, and podcasts, from medical experts to legal experts to mental health experts to culture experts to "misinformation" experts and beyond.

As many will remember, however, many of these experts did themselves and their respective industries no favors by seeming to calculatingly tailor their expert opinions based on their political beliefs more so than hard data, the latter of which itself sometimes seemed to be massaged to fit a particular political narrative.

Pollster/author Frank Luntz has been a fixture in GOP politics going back decades, and while many conservatives have strong opinions on him one way or the other, I don't.

I've been fascinated and intrigued over the years by his focus group findings and have appreciated his understanding that in the messaging wars, the way things are worded matters. Luntz, for instance, is credited with the creation of the term "death tax" over "estate tax," which turned out to be an immensely useful way of putting it for Republicans.

On the other hand, he's not a Trump fan (and by media accounts, the feeling is mutual), and the way Luntz conducted himself at the height of the pandemic on issues like lockdowns, masking, vaccines, etc., befuddled and frustrated many on the right.

So it is with all of that in mind that we turn to his reaction to the filibuster-like speech Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) gave Monday and Tuesday in which he railed against President Trump and called on Democrats to stand up and display leadership.

As we reported, the speech was predictably self-serving, spawning hilarious memes about the failed 2020 presidential candidate more so than serious conversations about his anti-Trump message. Even some on the left were critical of it.

But that's not the way Luntz saw it. In his mind, Booker's speech was a potential game-changer for American politics and vaulted him to the top of the list of viable 2028 Democrat presidential contenders:

“I want to emphasize what Cory Booker did over the last 24 hours may have changed the course of political history. I watched a lot of it. I listened to words. I listened to phrases,” Luntz said during a Tuesday evening appearance on NewsNation’s “On Balance.”
[...]
“He struck the kind of tone that grassroots Democrats are looking for. He gave them a reason to fight. He gave them a reason to stand up and say, this is my country too,” Luntz told anchor Leland Vittert.
“Of course, every Republican watching will say, ‘This is nonsense.’ But he is not speaking just to Republicans, he’s speaking to Americans, and what I saw over the last 25 hours absolutely blew me away,” he added.
[...]
“That speech puts Cory Booker as one of the leaders for the Democratic Party for 2028,” Luntz said.

Watch:

🚨Pollster Frank Luntz lavishes praise on Cory Booker for his 24+ hour rant about Donald Trump:

“What Cory Booker did may have changed the course of political history." pic.twitter.com/JXR1ZamC3H
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) April 2, 2025

To be fair, we all have opinions on political matters, and sometimes we're right and sometimes we're wrong. It happens to everyone. But this is one of those cringe, inexplicable opinions that I think is going to come back and bite Luntz because - like twice-failed Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris - Cory Booker has a big authenticity issue that shines through the more you get to know him, as we saw, for instance, during the whole "T-Bone" controversy.

But no one has to take my word for this - Booker will inadvertently confirm it himself at times, as he did here:

🚨Cory Booker, after going on a 25-hour anti-Trump diatribe, tells Stephen A Smith:

“Don't define yourself by who you're against, but by what you're for." pic.twitter.com/rQLvnpZLA6
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) April 4, 2025

I rest my case.

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