But Stephen A. Smith might make a better one.

News outlets and social media networks are abuzz this week over Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) less-than-stellar performance at the Munich Security Conference.

Conservative media outlets, of which there are no shortage these days, are filled with jokes at the Congresswoman’s frequent missteps, mistakes, and misinformation.

Like former Vice President and 2024 also-ran Kamala Harris, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez is being accused — not without reason — of serving up plenty of word salad.

Asked about Taiwan, the Congresswoman stumbled.

“Would and should the U.S. actually commit U.S. troops to defend Taiwan if China were to move?” was the question.

After a full 20 excruciating seconds of staring blankly, which even supporters of the Congresswoman from New York must have found painfully embarrassing, she managed to stammer out a few incoherent words on the subject.

“This is, of course, a, a very long-standing, policy of the United States, and I think what we are hoping for is that we want to make sure that we never get to that point, and we want to make sure that we are moving in all of our economic research and our global positions to avoid any such confrontation and for that question to even arise.”

Asked about Venezuela, the Congresswoman mumbled.

“We can’t just capture the leaders of nations like Venezuela because they are below the equator,” said Ocasio-Cortez.

Political analysts, fact-checkers, and Republican Party politicians had a field day, of course, pointing out that no part of Venezuela sits below the equator.

Not asked about U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Congresswoman managed still (somehow) to stumble over an embarrassing lack of knowledge.

“My favorite part was when he said that American cowboys came from Spain,” Ocasio-Cortez joked, laughing. “I believe that Mexicans and the descendants of African enslaved peoples would like to have a word on that.”

Of course, American cowboy culture did originate in Spain. The Spanish were the first to introduce horses into the modern Americas.

“Clueless AOC stumbles at Munich: Confused about Venezuela, cowboys,” crowed Robby Soave for The Hill.

“AOC Crashes and Burns in Munich,” quipped former-progressive turned conservative muckraker Sasha Stone on Substack. 

“Imagine the luxury of being a Democrat; the luxury of knowing that after serially faceplanting on the world stage, you can call any major news outlet in the country to aid and abet the cover-up of said faceplant,” marveled Breitbart’s John Nolte. 

While many progressive media outlets, not least of which the New York Times, fell upon the task of defending AOC with the customary gusto reserved for popular Democratic Party politicians, not everyone was playing along.

“AOC’s Munich stumble is a warning to the left,” Ross Barkan urged for The Intelligencer on Tuesday.

“It was supposed to be a triumphant foreign visit for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is, on the national level, the best current hope for the American left,” mused Barkan. “Though she acquitted herself well in a majority of the interviews and panels in Munich, one stumble stood out — demonstrating she hasn’t yet fully conceived a foreign-policy vision. It’s also a warning for progressives: It’s vital to approach certain foreign-policy and national-security issues, including China’s potential invasion of Taiwan, in a more sophisticated manner.”

“If Ocasio-Cortez wants to become more fluent on foreign policy, she’ll have to think harder about these sorts of questions — as will the rest of the Democratic Party, which still must make a case for itself in 2028 and beyond,” Barkan advised. “Right now, there are few genuinely sophisticated voices on the left when it comes to global affairs. It’s not clear many other potential 2028 candidates would have delivered better answers than AOC, even if they may not have paused for so long.”

It’s not a small matter: The U.S. President is the Commander-in-Chief of the entire U.S. military. On the subject of future wars, any candidate for president needs to be clear on their position and clearly communicate that position.

But Mr. Barkan makes a salient point: If not Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, then who? Barkan wonders, not without reason, if any of the other prominent Democrats positioning themselves for a presidential run in 2028 could have given a more satisfactory answer, at least on the subject of Taiwan.

The Democratic Party bench isn’t entirely bereft of options, however. 

Some candidates, like California Governor Gavin Newsom and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, to say nothing of former Vice President Kamala Harris, carry a not-insignificant amount of baggage.

Neither California nor Michigan is being particularly well-managed at the moment and Harris lost to Donald Trump in 2024.

There are other Democrats though and perhaps progressives should be looking further afield, outside politics, for a contender.

Enter Stephen A. Smith.

Though he is light on political experience, Mr. Smith has a proven track record of speaking truth to power. He is even, on occasion, willing to do something many progressive candidates won’t: Speak uncomfortable truths to and about the Democratic Party.

“Do you worry about racism if you ran for president?” Mr. Smith was asked during a recent interview.

“No,” Smith answered shortly. “I know it exists. I know that you can’t escape it, but I do not believe it is as prevalent as some on the left would like us to believe. I do believe a vast majority of Americans judge you on the content of your character, rather than the color of your skin.”

“I think a lot of people in America, especially in this day and age, now more so than ever before, it’s not about race,” Smith doubled down. “It’s about the fact they don’t give a damn about it, because they got their own problems. That’s entirely different than believing they are superior to you and want to hold you back from ascending. That’s not what’s going on to the degree it was decades ago.”

It wasn’t the only subject about which Smith has been outspoken in the last few weeks.

“The borders needed to be closed,” Smith said during an interview. “Trump was right to do that, but only because Biden opened them. Had Biden followed Barack Obama’s method and his plan, and what he did in deporting even more people than Trump did in his first term, you wouldn’t hear me saying that.”

“But when you let anywhere from 12 to 15 million people cross the border illegally, swearing in our face, spitting in our face, while telling us it’s raining, figuratively speaking, by telling us there was no border crisis when clearly there was, emergency efforts were necessary,” Smith said.

“Make no mistake about it, we wouldn’t have a border crisis under my watch,” added Smith. “Hell no. We wouldn’t have this crime that exists in the streets of New York. You wouldn’t hear about me saying ‘defund the police.’ We ain’t defunding any police.”

(Contributing writer, Brooke Bell)