Jonathan Bernstein: “He’s thrown away poll-tested strategies and is wandering around the nation getting increasingly angry. Could it work? Well, all the low-polling candidates need attention, so you never know. But it reminds me of Gary Hart’s post-scandal campaign during the 1988 nomination race. Except with a lot more profanity. That’s … more annoying than anything else. Hart had suspended his campaign, but eventually reentered without much hoopla. At first, his polling numbers surged, but it didn’t last and voters soundly rejected him.”

“Voters claim to hate poll-tested, slickly produced campaigns, but there’s very little evidence they actually want candidates raw without any frills, with the exception of a certain reality-television star in the 2016 Republican primaries (and Donald Trump was more ‘raw’ than raw, his entire persona wrapped up in the weird non-reality of reality TV). As it was with Hart, it’s tempting to think that O’Rourke will beat the consultants and the ad specialists and connect directly with voters. But he probably won’t.”

Politico: “What’s interesting about O’Rourke at this moment is not just that he’s saying fuck a whole bunch—he’s always dropped curse words on the stump—but that he’s entered more broadly a new phase of his 2020 bid, which supporters find inspiring and critics consider desperate to the point of pathetic. Up close, though, it feels actually pretty compelling.”

“Let’s go ahead and call it Beto’s ‘fuck-it phase.'”

“The question lurking behind this caution-free style is whether O’Rourke is doing this because he cares less about his stagnant candidacy or because he in fact cares so much more.”

Beto O’Rourke is selling campaign t-shirts that say, “This Is Fucked Up.”

It’s followed by the message: “End gun violence now. Beto for America.”

“Beto O’Rourke plans to present himself to the country as a changed candidate on Thursday, with his presidential campaign recast as a moral crusade against President Trump in the aftermath of a mass shooting in El Paso, his hometown,” the New York Times reports.

“Mr. O’Rourke, who represented the city in Congress until the start of this year, said he would abandon the relatively traditional approach he has so far taken — with limited success — and largely detach his travel from a primary calendar that tethers most candidates to a handful of early-voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire.”

“Instead, Mr. O’Rourke said he would now plan his political activities around confronting Mr. Trump in direct and personal terms, and highlighting what Mr. O’Rourke views as the injustices of Mr. Trump’s administration. He intends to seek out immigrant-rich towns to campaign in, and to make gun control a central issue.”

“Beto O’Rourke will formally rejoin the presidential race on Thursday, resuming a campaign that has been suspended for nearly two weeks with what he promises will be a ‘major address to the nation’ from his hometown of El Paso, Texas, where a mass shooting killed 22 people,” the AP reports.

Politico: “For more than a week since the shooting, O’Rourke served as a passionate voice for his border city and for immigrants more generally, with his wrenching criticism of President Donald Trump. And if O’Rourke had wanted to run for Senate, this would have been the time to make the jump — summoned home by tragedy, not limping back amid a sputtering campaign.”

“But O’Rourke has never expressed interest in running for Senate this year, after his near-miss loss to Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018. The El Paso massacre only redoubled his resolve to campaign against Trump, according to sources close to his campaign, while persistent calls for him to run for Senate exasperated his supporters.”

President Trump tweeted late Tuesday night questioning the authenticity of Beto O’Rourke’s name and telling the former Texas congressman to “be quiet.”

Said Trump: “Beto (phony name to indicate Hispanic heritage) O’Rourke, who is embarrassed by my last visit to the Great State of Texas, where I trounced him, and is now even more embarrassed by polling at 1% in the Democrat Primary, should respect the victims & law enforcement – & be quiet!”

O’Rourke responds: “22 people in my hometown are dead after an act of terror inspired by your racism. El Paso will not be quiet and neither will I.”

Washington Post: “He’s collecting millions of dollars in campaign donations, has hired experienced Democratic operatives and is paying his field organizers eye-popping wages, probably the highest in the primary campaign. O’Rourke has quickly built a large operation in Iowa, with 11 offices scattered throughout the state, and he welcomed crowds of at least 100 during his last two town halls there.”

“But those images belie the struggles he’s facing: spending money more quickly than he is raising it, polling nationally between 1 percent and 3 percent in the past month, and trying to convince voters he has the experience and vision to be president. After a first debate appearance that raised alarm among his major donors, there is ever-increasing pressure on O’Rourke to shine at Tuesday’s debate and remind Democrats why so many thought he could be a front-runner just a few months ago.”

The Atlantic: Searching for Beto.

Caught on video: With his flight delayed out of Sioux City, Iowa, Beto O’Rourke challenged his presidential campaign staff to a push up competition.

Said O’Rourke: “We gotta make use of this time.”

“Beto O’Rourke has gone from phenom to front-runner to flailing in five months, and so he came home to this dusty border town last week to regroup, prepare for the next debate, and try to recast himself as the underdog in a Democratic presidential race in which many have already counted him out,” NBC News reports.

“O’Rourke says that he doesn’t plan to change his freewheeling style much, but that a top priority now is to raise the money to keep building his campaign organization so it will be ready to rebound.”

Said O’Rourke: “If you remember in Texas, it didn’t happen overnight. It was a really long process that was against the odds, very often counted down and out.”

“Beto O’Rourke will report raising about $3.6 million from April through June, a startlingly small sum for a candidate whose presidential campaign once appeared ascendant and who raised massive amounts of money for his 2018 Senate race,” Politico reports.

Politico: “He got battered in his first presidential debate. His poll numbers have sunk to low single digits. Glowing press coverage has given way to questions about how long he can hang on. Beto O’Rourke’s candidacy today is almost an inversion of what it was at the start of his campaign less than four months ago.”