commentary on that Monmouth poll: https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/01/poll-jump-ball-in-new-hampshire.php excerpt: The polls suggest that Buttigieg might win in both Iowa (where RCP the poll average nearly mirrors Monmouth’s Granite State results) and New Hampshire, although the odds remain against that “double.” Having paid considerable attention to Buttigieg’s campaign from almost its beginning, I’m not surprised that he broke away from the no-hopers with whom he originally was bunched. However, I did not expect him to do quite as well as he seems to be doing. Buttigeig’s advantages over the other three first-tier candidates are obvious, though. He’s 37 years old. The other three are in their 70s. . . . In May of last year, President Trump said of Buttigieg, “Alfred E. Neuman cannot become president of the United States.” Back then, it seemed obvious that Buttigieg could not even become the Democratic nominee for president, not 2020 anyway. It’s less obvious today.
To have any shot, Pete likely has to win *both* Iowa and NH - which is doable. But even then, I'm still not sure how he makes up enough ground in NV/SC to be in the mix going into a Super Tuesday that does not play to his strengths.
There’s no way a gay guy with butt in his name can be president of the US after a black guy named Barack Obama and Donald Trump won. I’m not living in the Twilight Zone. I’m pretty sure at least.
Pete won't win. Bloomberg is an optics theif. The left centrist vote is being divided down the middle thanks to him. Pete had a good shot actually, but now he's been blocked. I expect him to soon endorse Elizabeth Waren and make a big deal about how he's with her when they take a threeway selfie with Castro.
Anthony Brown endorses Mayor Pete: https://www.baltimoresun.com/politi...0200109-ugleooyuwvg4jhju2bdk4amkbi-story.html
As I’ve said, I’ll vote for a progressive but I’m more inclined to support moderates. I really like Mayor Pete but didn’t really consider him since I didn’t think he had a shot.... Now... Let’s go Mayor Pete! I wouldn’t mind a billionaire battle either, but not Steyer.
I don’t know why so many people like Pete . I don’t particularly love any of his policies and i think he speaks in generalities a lot . He’s young , but young people don’t seem to like him . IMO he has less experience leading people than yang does. He doesn’t have a brilliant singular idea or policy . His best pitch to democrats is “I know how to talk to midwesterners” .... it’s ****ing stupid , and kinda demeaning to midwesterners
I saw a comment from a young working class guy who said he hates Mayor Pete because he reminded him so much of a boss. I had to laugh as I could just see Pete as the authoritarian type who would be made a boss by the higher ups, though he did not have that much experience.
As an open fan of Mayor Pete, I'll do my best to sum up why he's been able to garner such support from people like me. Pete has put forward a lot of creative policy proposals to deal with issues like institutional racism, infrastructure, and national service that I encourage you to read. But to be honest, it's not just his policy that has me pulling for Pete. I look at where our country is and we need a leader who can push for progressive change in this country, while also avoiding alienating the other half of the country. I wrote this in an earlier thread about what Dems need to win in 2020: 65% of Americans support a public option. 83% of gun owners support universal background checks. Public sentiment lines up with Democratic policy here. Let's be laser-focused and get meaningful reform passed. Republicans are great at shifting policy discussion to more abstract concepts like gun control and government healthcare, and then stifling any progress on these fronts. We won a House Majority in 2018 by flipping purple states, with a focus on securing and expanding Obamacare. Medicare for All is supported by just over 50% of Americans, but is a non-starter in red and purple parts of the country. Pushing for Medicare for All puts these newly-elected congressmen in a precarious position and gives Republicans the opening to do what they do best, obstruct any reform here. Even his harshest critics will grant that Pete is a gifted orator who knows how to stay on message. Look at how he navigates the landmine of an issue that is late term abortions. I want a leader who has put deep thought and has a real framework to evaluate issues in the gray area like this. To me, Pete has an interesting intersection of life experiences that allows him to speak with conviction about hot-button issues like these and call out the hypocrisy of the Republican party: Younger - uses this to speak on climate change (will be alive to face the impact of this) and gun control (grew up in school shooting generation) Mayor - experience building a coalition using practicality, solving problems with a finite budget, being a mayor of all people in his community Military vet - can speak to how we re-integrate our veterans into society, the real cost of war Openly gay - can speak on being a minority/outsider in his community, making social progress in conservative areas and still being loved across the aisle Christian - does a great job of relating his faith to socially liberal policies (being compassionate for our fellow man with healthcare and accepting of LGBT and underserved communities) And yes, he's from the Midwest - a successful Democratic mayor in conservative part of country, can speak to reviving a city hurt by automation and loss of industry TL;DR - I want a candidate who advocates for policies that a majority of Americans can rally behind, can think quickly on their feet, knows how to frame issues in a way that allows both sides to understand their perspective, and can unite our country after Trump is gone. To me, that person is Pete Buttigieg.
This is my sentiment exactly. I just watched The Weekly and it made me like Pete even more, I don't understand the Yang love and the Pete hate. I think he is extremely likable and whip smart. I am glad you have actually listed his policy proposals, I don't think people have actually read them, he is talking about some bold progressive moves. This might not be his time but he will be a force in Democratic politics for a long time and the party will be better for it. He would make a great SOS.
This is the role I see for him in a Biden administration. He can't be a VP because of the two-white-guys problem, but SoS fits him perfectly and positions him to be a leading candidate for the Presidency later on as well.
Sos used to be a jumping ground for presidential candidates in the early days of the republic. Chances much bigger if you don’t prop multibillion dollar non profit...
Great post for helping me understand the Pete attraction. Didn't get me any closer to supporting him, but you make sense. Ultimately, as sneaky progressive as he may sound, I think he still has blinders on. I like him fine, but he needs more seasoning. They don't strike me as at all the same kind of candidate. Pete is the sneaky McKinsey guy who is very careful to consider his audience and tailor his message to get people to like him. Yang tells you what he thinks whether you like it or not. Also, policy-wise Pete falls into a pretty mainstream moderate left lane. Yang is some kind of quasi-libertarian-socialist, if there was such a thing. Just like Pete doesn't have enough experience for me to be comfortable with him as president, I'm also uncomfortable with him being Secretary of State. He's slick, but he just hasn't been around. Start him in HUD or something. Or Vice President -- you can't do much damage from that seat, but you get tons of experience.
In Orangeburg, Buttigieg says he must earn respect of African American voters The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, held a conversation with CNN political analyst Angela Rye during a live recording of her “On One with Angela Rye” podcast in Ministers' Hall Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg said he has to earn the votes of African Americans. HBCUs hold solutions, Buttigieg says at SCSU Buttigieg, whose term as mayor of South Bend, Indiana, expired in January, visited Claflin University on Thursday. He held a conversation with CNN political analyst Angela Rye during a live recording of her “On One with Angela Rye” podcast in Ministers' Hall. With polls showing his support in single digits among South Carolina black voters, Buttigieg said he must gain the respect of African Americans. Candidate: City visit informative; ‘Mayor Pete’: Orangeburg shares similar concerns with other communities “It’s my job as a candidate to make sure that I earn that,” he said. Buttigieg said it scares him that white people are the majority of the crowd at his campaign events. “In order not just to win, in order to be deserving to win, I’ve got to be speaking to everybody,” Buttigieg said. Rye asked Buttigieg a series of questions relevant to the large number of college students in the crowd, the first being about student loan debt relief. Buttigieg in Orangeburg: College debt, drug prices too high, candidate says “I support forms of debt relief,” Buttigieg said. But he isn’t in favor of any particular plan proposed by fellow presidential candidates and current lawmakers, Buttigieg said. “I’m worried about the fairness of saying that if you were lucky enough to have your student debt, at a certain moment you get it waived away. But if you run it up afterward or if you just paid it off, too bad. I think the right way to do this is to make sure that everybody gets their loans forgiven by taking certain steps,” Buttigieg said. Buttigieg said the expansion of public service loan forgiveness would be his focus. “We’ve got a public service loan forgiveness now, but it’s almost impossible to take advantage of,” he said. “We can fix that, and we can widen the definition of what public service is for those purposes so that the programs are more generous and more user-friendly,” Buttigieg said. One of Buttigieg’s proposals is the Douglass Plan, which would provide $50 million in funding for historically black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions. Rye asked Buttigieg what percentage of the $50 million would be designated solely for HBCUs. “I expect certainly the majority of that is going to HBCUs. And I’ve kept it a little bit broad on purpose, in terms of where it can go,” Buttigieg said. “One of them is infrastructure. Just looking at physical infrastructure of an HBCU campus,” Buttigieg said. “The other one is kind of the federal funding and federal research that should be happening more on HBCU campuses,” he said. Want to get a whole lot more from TheTandD.com? “A third, and more particularly important one, is I want to focus on professions where we have the greatest underrepresentation of black professionals. Because of course, HBCUs are generating that next generation of black professionals, and so many other things that we’re trying to target get better if we fix them,” Buttigieg said. Buttigieg also talked about the immediate backlash he received from private health care insurers after releasing his "Medicare for All Who Want It" plan. “They definitely attacked it the next day because they don’t want the competition,” Buttigieg said. His Medicare plan would offer a comprehensive public alternative to Medicare, and provide incentives for private insurers to have competitive pricing and lower insurance costs. Bradley Harris' memorable stories from 2019 “What I’m saying is we’re going to create a better alternative, and it’s going to run them out of business unless they do a better job than they ever have,” Buttigieg said. “And maybe they do, and if they do, good for them. I don’t think they will, but if they do, the truth is I don’t care. I just want to make sure everybody’s covered,” Buttigieg said.
Appreciate the response. I get that Pete is a bit green and it may not be his time, but I do hope whoever ends up winning the nomination borrows from how Pete has framed the party's values. If you don't mind me asking, who's your pick from the nomination?
[QUOTE="JuanValdez, post: 12813897, member: 35" They don't strike me as at all the same kind of candidate. Pete is the sneaky McKinsey guy who is very careful to consider his audience and tailor his message to get people to like him. Yang tells you what he thinks whether you like it or not. Also, policy-wise Pete falls into a pretty mainstream moderate left lane. Yang is some kind of quasi-libertarian-socialist, if there was such a thing. [/QUOTE] Him being sneaky and slick is how you view him, I don't see him that way at all. He comes across as very sincere and no nonsense and I have a great bullshit detector. Since when is being measured and carefully choosing your words a negative. I compare Pete to yang because they both have little experience are young and get by on their messaging what about Petes message cause people to hate him? Every politician tailors their message for their audience and this is a great example of nitpicking Pete. Nobody really knows Pete or Yang so why does Yang get the benefit of doubt, why is he not sneaky? I am actually pretty surprised to see you describing Pete that way.
I agree with those saying Pete would be a great choice for SOS. I think he would more than adequately carry out those duties, and for him, it would improve his stock tremendously. He might have to face the realization that his best bet for burying his issues with minority voters is 4-8 years as SOS. That makes him a much bigger name, thus more electable, which is what I think is their primary concern. They want someone they know and someone “big” enough to win.
That's because he's so slick and sneaky. You think I'm criticizing (perhaps understandably) but honestly I meant it more as a characterization than a criticism. The fact that he's good as saying things that make people feel like he understands and he's on their side without actually committing to anything in particular -- that's a great political skill. Maybe I'm prejudiced because I know some McKinsey guys, and McKinsey guys all seem really good at that sort of stuff. But I don't think it's a bad thing, he's not lying or deceiving people. It's just a different way to win. Still a bit torn. If Yang is still around on Super Tuesday, I'll probably vote for him. Unless he catches fire and becomes a threat to actually win, then I'll have to reconsider, lol. Really, it's a show of support for Universal Basic Income -- I like that idea but I don't have a lot of confidence in Yang the man. Otherwise, probably Sanders. Then I'll support whomever it is in the general, be it Biden, Bloomberg, or Buttigieg. Even Tulsi Gabbard.