Watching Texas state Rep. James Talarico at CNN and Jubilee's Oct. 14 town hall, I thought: His performative pandering is what you'd get if you told a teacher and seminarian-turned-politician that Texans really need a Democrat as smooth as former President Barack Obama.

It's to Talarico's credit that he sat for the 90-minute town hall. But save for a few questioners who openly challenged the man running neck and neck with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for the U.S. Senate, it was mostly round after round of soft pitches from a sympathetic moderator, in a venue that seemed staged for Democratic applause.

Talarico hit a few home runs and drew a few cheers. But to extend the baseball analogy, he was playing on easy mode: swinging at simulated pitches in a video game, not facing 100-mph heat at Dodger Stadium. Even so, he came off as cloying and phony, dodging, obfuscating and placating his way through the easiest pitching he'll ever see.