Ossoff: The next thing, or "Great White Hype" for Dems?

Jon Ossoff is having a moment. But some Democratic insiders are questioning whether he's the real deal — or if a few slickly produced videos are making him look like more of a political juggernaut than he is.Why it matters: The Georgia senator, 39, has catapulted into the 2028 conversation by making liberals on social media swoon over his viral clips of high-energy rallies and sharp takedowns of President Trump and Republicans.Our conversations with Democratic strategists in Georgia and beyond — as well as aides to his potential 2028 rivals — revealed a mix of respect for Ossoff's digital skills and skepticism that they add up to a serious presidential campaign-in-waiting.One Georgia Democrat went so far as to compare Ossoff's rise to "The Great White Hype," a 1996 comedy about a Black boxing promoter who recruits an amateur white boxer to draw more money and attention.Zoom in: The strategists said Ossoff has earned much of the buzz that's building around him.But they worry that his core team of advisers is too insular and that the nationwide chatter about him has gone to his head, even as he focuses on his Senate reelection campaign this year. Among their critiques:1. He hasn't yet proved he can be nimble in the modern media environment.The Democrats point out that Ossoff's videos have largely featured him delivering prepared speeches — not talking off the cuff.Those who know Ossoff personally say he's studious to the point of being self-serious, that his prep sessions regularly go extra long, and that he isn't one for small talk.Ossoff also hasn't been as active on the podcast circuit as other potential 2028 presidential contenders. He's stuck to more predictable environments such as interviews with the liberal network MS Now or brief interactions with TMZ.Kyle Tharp, a progressive operative who writes a newsletter about digital media, told us that Ossoff's team is "very talented" but that their "perfectly choreographed clips" are a big part of "fueling the Jon Ossoff 2028 hype machine."The question, he said, is whether Ossoff can have "more unscripted moments and long-form conversations."2. Ossoff got where he is by riding Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock's coattails.Ossoff flipped a Senate seat in 2021 in a key presidential battleground, and could be on the verge of another win: Polls show him leading Republican Rep. Mike Collins by up to double digits.But some Democratic strategists argue that Warnock pulled Ossoff across the finish line when they ran in the 2021 runoff election. Warnock, a senior pastor at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once preached, outperformed Ossoff in the runoff — then held on to his seat in 2022 despite political headwinds during the Biden administration."Ossoff didn't get here alone," Rich McDaniel, a Georgia-based Democratic strategist and an architect of former Alabama Sen. Doug Jones' 2017 victory, told Axios."Many would argue it was Warnock who carried him in 2020, not the other