THE PRESIDENT will make a “major announcement,” in his words, at 3 p.m. today from the Diplomatic Reception Room. The speech is being closely held at the White House. But here are some broad strokes we’ve picked up on in our conversations with the administration and on Capitol Hill:

— THE NITTY GRITTY: Things are always changing at the White House. But Hill sources and people close to the president expect — and, frankly, hope — the president will announce he is trading immigration policies Democrats and some Republicans have longed for — think DACA, temporary protective status for refugees — for a border security package. The White House has said publicly for a while that it wants to find a way to restart negotiations with Democrats.

— IF THE PRESIDENT ACTUALLY goes this route — and, again, many Dems and Republicans truly hope he does — it could be a big move, and may go some distance to breaking the nearly month-long gridlock of this shutdown. We saw VP MIKE PENCE and senior White House aide Jared Kushner in the Capitol this week, huddling with SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL. Pence and Kushner have been captaining this play. But Republicans want Trump to lead publicly here.

— THE UNDER-THE-DOME POLITICS: To the extent there are any good moves on DAY 29 of a shutdown, this would be it. This could put pressure on Democrats to come to the table and talk. Fixing issues like DACA and TPS are big-time policy wins for Democrats and many Republicans. The question we have is what could they offer Republicans on a border security package?

— HILL INSIDERS TELL US that the two sides are not talking about a stopgap bill to open government up during these negotiations. That could be a hurdle for Democrats, who have refused to talk while government is closed. Democrats have also said they’re open to broader border security improvements, but not a wall.

— BUT … Even Democrats privately say that if the White House actually moves on policy it could put pressure on them to do something.

DETAILS MATTER on immigration. If the president went this route, will he propose permanent policy, or temporary policy? How much money does he want? Is he going to move on the border security package? Will this be a wall, or something more palatable for Democrats?

COMBINE IT WITH THIS … JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS points out in the NYT today, Democrats have added $1 billion for border security into a spending bill they plan to pass next week. NYT story

HEADS UP … HOUSE GOP LEADERSHIP is holding a 2:30 p.m. call with their members to preview the president’s 3 p.m. remarks.

Good Saturday morning. THE PRESIDENT is also hosting a naturalization ceremony at 1 p.m. in the Oval Office. He went to Dover Air Force Base this morning to greet the remains of four Americans killed in Syria.

LUCKY US … DAVID ROGERS: “When Congress debated border security without having a total meltdown”: “Yes, it seems a distant memory amid all the heated rhetoric over the government shutdown. But it wasn’t so long ago that Democrats and Republicans could have a reasoned debate over funding border security.

“Indeed, to go back now and track the history of appropriations bills sheds new light on a battle that today seems divorced from reality and lacking proportion.

“President Donald Trump bashes Democrats daily for obstructing his border wall. But the record shows that he received much of his request in 2018 and had already won bipartisan Senate support for $1.6 billion in 2019 when he effectively blew up the process by greatly escalating his demands going into the fall midterm elections.

“At the same time, Democrats appear so repelled by the harsh symbolism of Trump’s wall that they find it hard to talk about their record of helping another Republican president — George W. Bush — build many of the barriers that already exist along the border.” POLITICO

POLITICO TICK TOCK … ANDREW RESTUCCIA and NANCY COOK: “‘Theater of the absurd’: How the shutdown’s bleakest week unfolded for Trump”: “President Donald Trump met with a group of House lawmakers on Wednesday to talk about ending the month-long government shutdown. But he was more focused on the two people who weren’t in the room: Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.

“‘I don’t see how we’re going to come to a deal’ without them, Trump told the mostly junior lawmakers gathered in the White House Situation Room. By then it had already been more than a week since the president had spoken with Pelosi, the House speaker, and Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader. But Trump said he wasn’t in a hurry. ‘I’ll wait them out,’ he confided, according to a person present for the remarks. …

“The White House argued it canceled the trip to ensure that Pelosi and other top Democrats remained in Washington to negotiate a deal to end the shutdown. But the move doesn’t appear to have kept Pelosi in town. She was spotted boarding a plane to San Francisco on Friday afternoon, according to a person who saw her.” POLITICO

THE IMPACT – “Federal Employees Turn to Pawnshops Amid Shutdown’s Financial Pinch,” by NYT’s Mihir Zaveri: “Televisions. Jewelry. Tools. At Blaine Fortner’s pawnshop in Billings, Mont., there has been a slow but steady increase in one segment of his clientele pawning these and other items in exchange for cash: employees of the federal government.

“As the longest government shutdown in American history continues, federal workers who are not getting paid are increasingly turning to pawnbrokers for short-term loans. The turnout is small — a few people per day — pawnbrokers said, with similar stories emerging from places like Capitol Heights, Md.; Alexandria, Va.; Las Vegas; and Anchorage, Alaska. But many said they expected the numbers to increase amid the stalemate.” NYT

— “‘I see people panicking’: In a Coast Guard town, hardship and resolve amid the shutdown,” by WaPo’s Dan Lamote at Coast Guard Training Center Cape May, N.J.

THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMM …

— WSJ’S BYRON TAU in D.C. and ALEXANDRA BERZON in Los Angeles: “Justice Department’s Reversal on Online Gambling Tracked Memo From Adelson Lobbyists”: “The legal reasoning behind the Justice Department’s unusual reversal this week of an opinion that paved the way for online gambling hewed closely to arguments made by lobbyists for casino magnate and top Republican donor Sheldon Adelson. In April 2017, one of the lobbyists sent a memo to top officials in the Justice Department, arguing that a 2011 opinion that benefited online gambling was wrong.

“Officials in the department’s Criminal Division, in turn, forwarded it to the Office of Legal Counsel, which had issued the opinion, and asked attorneys there to re-examine their stance that a law on the books for decades didn’t prohibit online gambling, according to documents and interviews with people familiar with the matter. … The department’s new position was a victory for Mr. Adelson, who has poured millions into a multiyear lobbying campaign on the matter.” WSJ

— WAPO’S ROBERT O’HARROW JR.: “A $450 dinner, $45 whiskey: Two financial regulators ring up the expenses”: “They are federal financial regulators who filed for expenses like corporate CEOs, seeking reimbursement for limos, deluxe air travel and meals in posh restaurants.

“There was an UberBlack ride from the District to neighboring Alexandria, Va., for $250, according to internal records obtained by The Washington Post. Two airline tickets to a meeting in Vienna came in at more than $11,000 each, even as a staffer found a way to the same event for a fraction of the price. A meal for three at Joe’s Seafood near the White House cost $450 — including $45 for a dish of Dover sole and $43 for halibut, according to receipts for the meal.

“J. Mark McWatters, head of the National Credit Union Administration, and his chief of staff, Sarah Vega, and their guests also showed a fondness for wine and top-shelf liquor, including, in one instance, a $45 glass of 18-year-old single-malt whiskey, records show. In 2016 and 2017, they expensed more than $2,500 worth of alcoholic beverages — most of it under Vega’s account — despite a written policy prohibiting reimbursement for the purchase of alcohol. ‘They have expensive taste,’ John Kutchey, deputy executive director of the NCUA, explained to agency investigators who asked about the spending last year.” WaPo

2020 WATCH … WAPO’S MICHAEL SCHERER — “Advisers to former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz are looking at him running as an independent for president in 2020”: “Advisers to former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz have been exploring the possibility of launching an independent bid for the White House in 2020, according to two people who have been informed of the discussions. …

“Trump’s opponents, including many Democratic strategists, have expressed concerns that a serious three-way race in November would divide the Democratic vote in a way that helps Trump win reelection, either directly by denying Democrats states they would otherwise have won or by shifting the ultimate decision to the U.S. House.” WaPo

SMART STORY … CHRIS CADELAGO: “The ‘I’m sorry’ 2020 Democratic primary”: “Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand regrets that, as a conservative upstate congresswoman, she backed gun rights and held ‘callous’ views on immigration. Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is sorry for past ‘offensive and hurtful statements’ about the LGBTQ community.

“Bernie Sanders is sorry, too — he’s repeatedly apologized the women who were revealed to be sexually mistreated while working on his last campaign for president, before the #MeToo movement.

“Even before the 2020 Democratic presidential primary kicks into gear — and ahead of Sanders’ own decision about whether he’ll run again — the contours of the race are being shaped by an apology tour of sorts.” POLITICO

ON THE BUZZFEED STORY … JOSH GERSTEIN and DARREN SAMUELSOHN: “Mueller team disputes aspects of BuzzFeed report on Trump, Cohen”: “Mueller’s normally tight-lipped operation issued a statement Friday night indicating that the BuzzFeed report contained inaccuracies, at least with respect to its statements about the information gathered by the special counsel’s team.

“‘BuzzFeed’s description of specific statements to the Special Counsel’s Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen’s Congressional testimony are not accurate,’ Mueller spokesman Peter Carr said in a statement. He did not elaborate. Trump quickly took to Twitter to react to the news, retweeting messages from supporters who’d expressed suspicion about the report.” POLITICO

— BEN SMITH SPEAKS (@BuzzFeedBen): “In response to the statement [Friday night] from the Special Counsel’s spokesman: We stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the Special Counsel to make clear what he’s disputing.”

VALLEY TALK — “U.S. regulators have met to discuss imposing a record-setting fine against Facebook for privacy violations,” by WaPo’s Tony Romm and Elizabeth Dwoskin: “U.S. regulators have met to discuss imposing a record-setting fine against Facebook for violating a legally binding agreement with the government to protect the privacy of its users’ personal data, according to three people familiar with the deliberations but not authorized to speak on the record.

“The fine under consideration at the Federal Trade Commission, a privacy and security watchdog that began probing Facebook last year, would mark the first major punishment levied against Facebook in the United States since reports emerged in March that Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy, accessed personal information on about 87 million Facebook users without their knowledge.” WaPo

DESSERT … DAN SNYDER WATCH – “Showboat: billionaire NFL team owner installs Imax cinema on superyacht,” by The Guardian’s Rupert Neate: “Nearly every superyacht launched by shipyards across the world now comes with at least one cinema suite or facility to screen movies on deck as the sun goes down. However, Lady S, which is also known by its codename, Project 814, is the first to have an Imax.

“[Jan-Bart Verkuyl, CEO of the Royal Van Lent shipyard] said the 12-seat, two-level Imax is so big ‘the vessel had to be built around the Imax’. Lady S also features a pair of 8K HD TVs, a helipad, four VIP suites and facilities that ‘cater to a wide range of sports, including golf, basketball, volleyball and football’. The interior of the vessel is described as ‘akin to a beautiful and contemporary jewellery box’.” With a pic and a video. The Guardian

CLICKER – “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker — 16 funnies

GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman, filing from Aspen, Colorado:

— “Meet Britt McHenry, the Fox News Star for Millennials,” by Amanda Whiting in Washingtonian: “She wants you to know she’s about more than that nasty viral video.” Washingtonian

— “Jack Dorsey Has No Clue What He Wants,” by HuffPost’s Ashley Feinberg: “A Q&A with Twitter’s CEO on right-wing extremism, Candace Owens, and what he’d do if the president called on his followers to murder journalists.” HuffPost

— “Dark Money” – directed by Kimberly Reed: “‘Dark Money’ examines one of the greatest present threats to American democracy: the influence of untraceable corporate money on our elections and elected officials.” Amazon … The trailer

— “How a Stroke Turned a 63-Year-Old Into a Rap Legend,” by Jeff Maysh in the Atlantic – per Longreads.com’s description: “For stroke survivor Sherman Hershfield, rapping and rhyming kept his seizures under control.” The Atlantic

— “Facebook Didn’t Seem To Care I Was Being Sexually Harassed Until I Decided To Write About It,” by HuffPost’s Jesselyn Cook: “While his genius may be largely uncontested, Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of Facebook is badly adrift from reality. He paints the social media behemoth he founded in 2004 as a tool ‘to bring the world closer together,’ but in many ways, it has become an indispensable amplification device for people who want to make it known that they hate other people.” HuffPost

— “The Ministry of Mr. Rogers,” by Robert Sullivan in the N.Y. Review of Books, in a review of the documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor? and “The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers,” by Maxwell King. NYRB (h/t Longform.org)

— “You Deserve Privacy Online. Here’s How You Could Actually Get It,” by Tim Cook in TIME: “We all deserve control over our digital lives. That’s why we must rein in the data brokers.” TIME … Fast Company: “How Microsoft has (so far) avoided tough scrutiny over privacy issues”

— “Churchill’s Canvases,” by Carolyn Stewart in The American Interest – per ALDaily.com’s description: “At 39, listless and depressed, Winston Churchill took to the canvas. Although some of his works evoke paint-by-numbers, he was generally a ‘successful amateur’.” The American Interest

— “The Art of Decision-Making,” by Joshua Rothman in the New Yorker: “Your life choices aren’t just about what you want to do; they’re about who you want to be.” New Yorker

— “Battle of the Ax Men: Who Really Built the First Electric Rock ‘n’ Roll Guitar?” by Ben Marks in Collectors Weekly: Collectors Weekly (h/t Longform.org)

SPOTTED: Corey Lewandowski and Eric Bolling having dinner at Halls Chophouse in Charleston, S.C.

SPOTTED at a book party hosted by Terri Ryan and Kerry Muldoon for “#StillWithHer: Hillary Rodham Clinton and the Moments That Sparked a Movement,” by Barbara Kinney ($55.61 on Amazon): Hilary Rosen and Megan Murphy, Connolly Keigher, Alex Hornbrook, Adrienne Elrod, Ian Alberg and Mary Morrison, Tony and Lizzy Carrk, Karen Finney, Jennifer Simpson, Mandy Grunwald, Stephen Goodin, Adam Schultz and Julie Zuckerbrod.

BIRTHWEEK (was yesterday): Weekly Standard alum John McCormack (hat tip: Alice Lloyd)

BIRTHDAYS: John Avlon, CNN senior political analyst and fill-in anchor for “New Day,” is 46 … Ann Compton … Jon Karl is 51 (h/t Devin Dwyer) … Yousef Al Otaiba, Ambassador of the UAE to the U.S., is 46 … Brennan Hart … Mayor Pete Buttigieg is 37 (h/t Lis Smith) … Dan Holler, deputy COS for Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) (h/t Lauren Reamy) … Amy Levin Klein … CAP’s Anne Dechter … Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) is 47 … PBS alumnus Robert MacNeil is 88 … Jacquelyn Fain Duberstein … Phil Verveer (h/t wife Melanne) … Jerry Howe, treasurer of No Labels and EVP and general counsel of Leidos (h/t Katherine Weekly) … Civic Nation president Jason Waskey … Evan McMorris-Santoro, Vice News correspondent, is 38 … Twitter’s Caitlin Rush (h/t Taylor Gross) … Megan Shannon, VP of No Labels (h/t Katherine Weekley) … NWLC’s Melissa Boteach … Marc Schloss (h/t Taylor Holgate) … Mike Goodman … POLITICO’s Ben Torres …

… Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is 54 … Tyler Kendall, an associate producer at CBSN (h/t TJ Ducklo) … POLITICO Europe’s Giulia Chiatante … Kristin Mitchell … WaPo’s Drew Harwell is 32 … Brooks Kochvar … CNN’s Catherine Valentine … Sean Downey … Emily Pevnick … Shelley Fidler … Brooke Ericson … Paul Thacker … Sarah Farnsworth … Rep. Gregorio Sablan (I-North Mariana Islands) is 64 … Maury Devine … Angie Buhl-O’Donnell … Joe Milicia … Jonathan Monteith … Subrata De, EP at VICE Media … Aruna Kalyanam … Brita Stevenson Price … Tim Valentiner … Brian Hawthorne … Preston Elliott … Adam Sege … Laura Pena … Catie Horst (h/t Ed Cash) … Alexis Gay … David Green … Heather Roth … Sandy Blitz … Courtney Herb … Jonathan Steed … Philip Reeker … former U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar is 99.

THE SHOWS, by @MattMackowiak, filing from Austin:

• NBC

  “Meet the Press”: Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) … Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) … Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.). Panel: Peter Baker, Joshua Johnson, Danielle Pletka and Heidi Przybyla

• CNN

  “State of the Union”: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) … Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii). Panel: Rep. Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.), Mia Love, Rick Santorum and Jennifer Granholm

• CBS

  “Face the Nation”: Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) … Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) … Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) … Brett McGurk … Jason Rezaian. Panel: Molly Ball, Ramesh Ponnuru, Jamelle Bouie and David Sanger

• Fox

  “Fox News Sunday”: House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.). Panel: Newt Gingrich, Donna Edwards, Guy Benson and Charles Lane

• ABC

  “This Week”: Guests to be announced

• CNN

  “Inside Politics”: Panel: Eliana Johnson, Karoun Demirjian, Seung Min Kim and Michael Shear

• CNN

  “Reliable Sources”: Carl Bernstein and Tony Schwartz … Jeff Goldberg … Olivia Nuzzi and David Zurawik … Charles Sennott and Steve Waldman … Ben Smith and Anthony Cormier.

• Fox News

  “Sunday Morning Futures”: Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas.) … Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) … Rep. Jeff Van Drew (D-N.J.). Panel: Byron York and James Freeman

• Fox News

  “MediaBuzz”: Mollie Hemingway … Sara Fischer … Juan Williams … Emily Jashinsky … Philippe Reines … Susan Ferrechio … Francesca Chambers

• CNN

  “Fareed Zakaria GPS”: Tony Blair … Aaron Sorkin

• Univision

  “Al Punto”: Vicente Fox … Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) … Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) (re-air of 2013 interview) … Venezuelan opposition leader and National Assembly president Juan Guaidó … Yezid Baquero … Rafael Solis … Pablo Alborán

• C-SPAN

  “The Communicators”: Walt Mossberg … “Newsmakers”: Tim Chapman, questioned by Scott Wong and Al Weaver … “Q&A”: author and journalist Patricia Miller (“Bringing Down the Colonel”)

• MSNBC

  “Kasie DC”: House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) … Heidi Heitkamp … David McIntosh … Michael Steele … Marc Morial … Phil Rucker … Sam Stein … Carol Leonnig … Karine Jean-Pierre … Natasha Bertrand … Eugene Scott … Kayla Tausche

• Washington Times

  “Mack on Politics” weekly politics podcast with Matt Mackowiak (download on iTunes, Google Play, or Stitcher or listen at MackOnPolitics.com): Texas Alliance of Energy Producers president John Tintera.

• Anna Palmer @apalmerdc
• Jake Sherman @JakeSherman
• Daniel Lippman @dlippman

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2020 Elections

His musings might be mocked but he’s generating a torrent of media coverage.

Beto O’Rourke is five states into his stream-of-consciousness road trip across the American Southwest, unaccompanied as he drops into a small-town diner for cobbler, washes his face in a lake and journals about the need to “clear my head.”

All of which is unfolding as the rest of the Democratic presidential field has broken into a sprint — Elizabeth Warren to New Hampshire, Kirsten Gillibrand to Iowa, and Bernie Sanders and Cory Booker to South Carolina.

Story Continued Below

O’Rourke’s potential rivals are courting donors, assembling staffs and scurrying to early primary states, while the former Texas congressman is at the Pancake House in Liberal, Kansas, some 500 miles from Des Moines.

His absence from the fray has been noted — and his introspective writing style has been mocked. But amid much snickering, there is also evidence to suggest that if he does run for president, it could help him politically, advancing his off-beat brand.

“Beto is able to drive his own message,” said Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign manager. In a political environment where “the person is the message,” Mook said, “what makes him snacky for [the media] inevitably makes him refreshing and different for voters … The press writes about what Beto decides to do on his own, not in the context of Trump. That’s a big deal.”

With his online following, O’Rourke remains close to the 2020 conversation regardless of his location. And in the span of several days, he has generated a torrent of media coverage that — unlike Democrats in more public settings — he alone can control.

Officials at Oklahoma Panhandle State University, in Goodwell, said they only learned about two hours beforehand that O’Rourke was coming to campus, when an aide called to alert them. The school prepared a room, and several dozen students turned out, said Ryan Blanton, the university’s vice president of outreach.

Blanton, busy with telephone calls after the visit, said, “It got a lot more attention than we were hoping.”

Yet to O’Rourke’s benefit, there was no major media outlet on hand to cover the event in the moment — just as there were no reporters shouting questions at O’Rourke at the university or in Tucumcari, New Mexico, or at the Starbucks in Pueblo, Colo. The story has become whatever O’Rourke makes it — “Over-the-top, authentic, refreshing,” according to Slate. “Epic, rambling,” said Fox News.

The Denver Post, sniffing out O’Rourke’s turn into Colorado on Thursday, wrote simply, “Beto O’Rourke stopped by Pueblo on secret road trip across America.”

Even when the analysis has been critical — a sharp-edged CNN story Thursday asserted O’Rourke’s meandering trip “drips with white male privilege” — it is keeping O’Rourke in the news.

“Beto’s social media personality rivals cult-like status,” said Michael Ceraso, a Democratic strategist who worked on the presidential campaigns of Sanders and Barack Obama. Instead of embarking on a book tour or visiting early nominating states, he said, O’Rourke has “mastered the art of anticipation to mitigate political risks and elevate his persona.”

And for O’Rourke, who has little traditional campaign infrastructure and will rely on a network of small donors, maintaining such attention is critical. Bob Mulholland, a Democratic National Committee member from California, said, “American politics is a Broadway show: You either get a lot of people on the second night, or the show’s closing. O’Rourke knows the show will close if he’s not putting out some kind of speculation.”

O’Rourke is leaning toward running for president, according to at least four sources who have spoken to him or his advisers, and his former advisers have been quietly sketching the outline of a potential presidential campaign. The former Texas congressman will participate in Oprah Winfrey’s “Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations from Times Square,” a live event on Feb. 5.

But O’Rourke tells his friends and people he meets on the road that he has not made up his mind, and his Medium posts — his preferred method of communicating from the road — reflect an emotional vulnerability that is rare for a top-tier presidential contender. O’Rourke writes that he has been “in and out of a funk” lately and that on his road trip, he is hoping to “break out of the loops I’ve been stuck in.”

Larry Smith, owner of the Motel Safari in Tucumcari, said that when he asked O’Rourke why he chose to stay at his motel, O’Rourke said “he was attracted to the fact it was a mom and pop business.”

Then, noting the winter rate of $59.95, Smith added, “He said he’s on a budget because, how did he put it, he’s in between jobs.”

For a politician who is already popular — but lacking an extensive record of governing experience — O’Rourke’s road trip runs the risk of accentuating his popularity, but not necessarily conveying him as presidential, said former Rep. Tony Coelho, who was chairman of Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign. And Ed Rendell, a former governor of Pennsylvania and DNC chairman, said logistics alone make O’Rourke’s road trip “insane.”

“I think some of his friends ought to look at a temporary commitment,” he said.

Most politicians have at least one junior staffer join them on trips to collect contact information from potential supporters or donors — and actually do the driving.

“If you get into a car crash, if somebody gets hurt, forget about running for senator or running for governor or running for mayor or whatever,” Rendell said. “That’s rule No. 1.”

If O’Rourke is not pre-campaigning, Rendell said, but genuinely reflecting, he suggested that O’Rourke stop posting about it online.

“He’s posting because obviously he wants people to know he’s doing this,” Rendell said. “He wants people to say, ‘Oh my God, that Beto, he’s so unusual, a common man.”

There is precedent for politicians taking to the road. Former Florida governor and Sen. “Walkin’” Lawton Chiles walked for months across Florida in his 1970 Senate campaign. In the last presidential election, Clinton saved her journey — a beefier spectacle, complete with her security detail — for after she announced her candidacy. “Road trip!” she wrote on Twitter before setting off in a van nicknamed “Scooby” from her home in New York to Iowa.

That trip was meant, in part, to persuade Americans that the candidate could be unscripted and relatable, with a stop at a Chipotle in Ohio that — after security footage confirmed her presence — resulted in a flurry of coverage.

For some politicians, the purpose of a road trip is “to kind of get out of the bubble, and just go out and meet real folks,” said Garry South, a longtime Democratic strategist who sent one of his candidates, Alex Seith, on a road trip across Illinois in his 1978 race for U.S. Senate.

The purpose, South said, was not to “impact voters in any kind of massive way,” but to help the candidate.

“What it did for the candidate was, it gave him great raw material to talk about on the stump. You know, ‘I met a woman the other day, on her doorstep, in such and such a town, and here’s what she said to me’ …. Politicians die for those kinds of stories.”

O’Rourke himself spent much of his closer-than-expected campaign against Texas Sen. Ted Cruz last year traversing the roadways of Texas. Now that O’Rourke is mulling a presidential campaign, said Paul Maslin, a top Democratic pollster, “I think it’s way too soon to say any of this is good, bad or indifferent.”

For any candidate at this still-early stage, he said, “I think the biggest thing is what it means to any of them personally … There is nothing quite like going out and being a candidate for national office.”

“If it’s good for him, then that’s a good thing,” Maslin said. “That’s the biggest thing, is how they themselves get ready to do this, because there isn’t a lot of margin for error.”

In O’Rourke’s case, Mook said, “Unorthodox is a viable strategy.”

“I think he’s being really genuine,” he said. “Going into the proverbial wilderness to figure out what his purpose is.”