In his Manchester speech this afternoon, former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas again signaled his

unwillingness to let U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) assume the mantle of MLK alpha male in the 2020 prez contest.

“All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny,” intoned O’Rourke, hearkening to his El Paso kickoff when he appeared to kick sand at Booker, his fellow generation X guy in the race, whose speeches also go heavy on sweeping oratory and light on X’s and O’s.

Sagging from 3 to 2% in a Monmouth Poll issued last month, O’Rourke seems intent on using the quote as a standard mattress buttress of the spirit of his campaign.

For his part, Booker has massively peppered his speeches with the quote going back to his first race for mayor of Newark in 2002.

In the same Monmouth Poll, Booker appeared in arm-wrestling range of his Texas rival as he bench-pressed himself from a measly 2 to 4%.

It’s not the only time each of the two Democratic presidential candidates has seemed to reserve sharp elbows for the other.

Booker quizzically observed O’Rourke when the latter spoke Spanish at a summer debate forum.

As for O’Rourke’s appeal to King, it hasn’t been all eloquence on the trail for the Texan.

Far from it, in fact.

In fact, if Booker hopes to assume King-like gravitas by association, the only part-time poetically inclined O’Rourke is hedging his bets by also pouring on a steady Gatling Gun of contemporary profanity.

This from Politico:

“He [O’Rourke] is, however, apparently hoping that vulgarity will be an engine of his political revival in the Democratic presidential contest. In doing so, he is part of a confluence of factors serving to mainstream what once counted as the most forbidden entry in the roster of four-letter words.

“Notice to reader: The examples above are just two of 14 profanities in this story. Editors decided to skip the coy dashes and asterisks and more straightforward [expletive deleteds]. How else to handle it when a candidate for president infuses a policy statement after a horrific mass shooting with the phrase, ‘This is fucked up’?”