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Did you catch the Jamaal Bowman rally over the weekend? If not you missed a real show. Bowman was joined by AOC and Bernie Sanders and clearly the goal was to make some noise. But it feels like they went just a bit over the top. Here’s AOC entering to a song by Cardi B:

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Here she is screaming at the top of her lungs about winning the country back.

Worth noting that the crowd was smallish, partly because it was 90 degrees out. Also, there were some more people around the back standing under some trees. So more than 50 but it wasn’t a big turnout.

It was Bowman who really went off the rails, cursing and shouting and generally carrying on as if he was trying to settle a rap beef rather than run a campaign.

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You probably won’t hear this language at any other political rallies this year.

Rep. Ritchie Torres used his personal account to call this unbecoming of a Member of Congress. 

Today, Jonathan Chait wonders if Bowman isn’t trying to set himself up for his post-Congress job.

Jamaal Bowman has decided to close out his race for the Democratic nomination in New York’s 16th Congressional District by running as if his opponent is named “AIPAC.” At a weekend rally, he shouted, “We’re going to show f**king AIPAC the power of the motherf***ing South Bronx” (which is where the rally was held, but it’s not part of his district).

One explanation for this peculiar strategic choice is that Bowman is trying to boost his base by heightening its ideological and socioeconomic fault lines to the point that it would propel him outside its geographic boundaries. Another is that Bowman, who was found in the last poll to be trailing by 17 points, grasps his imminent defeat and is already positioning himself for a job at a professional protest organization by branding AIPAC as the author of his defeat.

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As Chait sees it, Bowman’s problem this election is hat he has simply moved so far left that even anti-Zionist Jewish groups consider him too radical. He calls Bowman’s weekend tirade a political suicide attempt.

This year, J Street withdrew its endorsement of Bowman. That devastating move followed a series of comments Bowman had made that aligned himself with left-wing protesters rather than with liberal Zionists. The final straw was Bowman’s appearance with Norman Finkelstein, a hyperbolic critic of Israel and author of The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering…

Bowman seems almost to crave political martyrdom. But if he does lose, it would be more accurate to attribute his demise to political suicide.

I don’t see how shouting the F-word at your opponents is going to help. It really does feel like Bowman has decided he might as well go out with a bang. Mission accomplished I guess.

His campaign seems to be going well today though.

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Update: AOC is claiming there were 1,200 people there. 

I see about 300, maybe 350 if you’re being generous. That’s not a great turnout for an event featuring AOC and Bernie Sanders.