Way back in 1974 a Democratic Party poll found Beatty to be the top Democratic prospect to succeed Ronald Reagan as governor of California, and in 1976 the Hubert Humphrey campaign considered asking Beatty to run in several primaries as a surrogate for Humphrey. By all accounts Beatty has a serious interest in public policy issues, and the campaigns he worked with always took his ideas seriously. But amidst these roles, observers detected in Beatty an urge to be a candidate himself. Compared to Ronald Reagan, not to mention Jesse Ventura, Beatty would seem on paper to be a superior candidate. The expectation is that Beatty would bring to a presidential campaign the same kind of iconoclastic, plain-speaking candor that he brought to his character in Bulworth .
Candor is what seems to be in most short supply in American politics.
In the case of Reagan and Ventura, it is their candor about what they think that is the source of their greatest appeal to the public. But candor is precisely what will scuttle a Beatty candidacy. Beatty is a liberal in a post-liberal era, contemplating a run because neither Vice President Al Gore nor Senator Bill Bradley is willing to stand up candidly for the old time religion of Democratic Party liberalism. Beatty is unlikely to trim and prevaricate like most politicians. He'd likely blast special interests, call for defense cuts, public financing of elections, higher taxes on business, decriminalization of drugs, more civil rights laws.