The Pete Buttigieg boom

[DonViejo]

How the mayor of South Bend became a surprisingly serious contender in the 2020 Democratic primary race.

By Zack Beauchamp@[e-mail] Apr 3, 2019, 8:30am EDT

As strange as it may sound, the mayor of a medium-sized city in the Midwest is now a real contender for the Democratic nomination for the presidency.

A late March Quinnipiac poll had Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, tied with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) for fifth place nationally, putting him ahead of Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). On Monday, Buttigieg announced his campaign raised more than $7 million in the first quarter of 2019, a non-trivial figure for a candidate that almost no one took seriously when he first entered the race. And a recent Economist/YouGov poll found Buttigieg was one of only three candidates in the Democratic field with a net-positive national approval (though a majority of those polled didn’t know enough about him to have an opinion).

Buttigieg has a kind of dual appeal. Some moderates like his Midwestern background, elite credentials (he’s a graduate of Harvard and Oxford), and soft-spoken but knowledgeable way of talking about policy. Liberal Democrats see in Buttigieg an intellectual who could be Trump’s polar opposite, and whose focus on political reforms like abolishing the Electoral College channels their frustration with a system that feels rigged in the GOP’s favor.

“In recent times, appealing to Republican legislators has been wasteful because they’ve mostly been acting in bad faith,” Buttigieg told me in a phone call last week.

Interviews and press appearances like our call have, so far, been the bread and butter of his campaign. After a breakout performance at a CNN town hall in early March, Buttigieg has received a significant increase in media attention and positive coverage. (By now, many more people know that it’s pronounced “Boot-edge-edge.”) His campaign has leveraged this into social media popularity and viral stardom, all of which has translated to a significant bump in the polls and fundraising.

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https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/4/3/18282638/pete-buttigieg-mayor-pete-pronounce-explained

[doompatrol39]

1. Honestly, I just love that he exposes the false idea...

..that the only way someone can win in the heartland or be appealing to people outside of the coastal cities is by being a conservative or pandering to the religious and other bigotry of Republicans in those areas.

All it takes is for someone to speak out our Democratic and progressive ideals with honesty and sincerity and actually....you know....sell those ideas rather than just shrugging shoulders and saying "Nope, that will never work here."

He doesn't insult their intelligence.

[marylandblue]

6. Regarding religion, he is trying to awaken a neglected force in American politics.

The religious left. The sort of people who take religion seriously, but are more concerned about social justice than policing bedrooms. There may be more of them than we think.

[femmedem]

2. Thanks. That's the best, most complete profile I've seen of him.

It explains his policies, his cross-over appeal, and criticisms of him--a great snapshot of his candidacy's strengths and vulnerabilities.

[secondwind]

3. The more exposure he gets, the better. He truly is a Renaissance man.

[brush]

4. It would be McGovern all over again. trump in a rout.

Let's look at 2020 with a unsentimental, discerning eye and nominate someone who can win and is not a feel-good, makes-us-smile-at-the-newness and freshness of the 180 degree difference of an anti-trumpster. Just as in 2018, we have to run on our issues, not on an antithesis of trump.

We've seen that movie before. McGovern was the 180 degree, anti-Nixon and we got burned horribly.

[marylandblue]

5. We may have seen this movie before, but it's not the one you think.

This is not 1972, it's 1980, when Reagan was considered unelectable but defeated a rather hapless Carter, with a new alignment of political forces. This time, we are Reagan. Reagan was called the Great Communicator and mastered TV. Buttigieg is also a great communicator and has mastered the TV interview and social media.

This is my unsentimental view based in political theory. And it doesn't have to be Buttigieg for it to be true. But it makes more sense to think about what political forces need to realign for whoever our candidate is, and pick which ever candidate can best lead that.

[brush]

8. We have several electable candidates, and some not so.

[marylandblue]

9. You don't know the future and neither do I.

After looking at every election since 1976, I realized that "unelectable" candidates often win and "electable" candidates often lose.

So I don't even try anymore. I just pick the one I like best overall, the one with the most strengths, not the one with one with the fewest vulnerabilities or has supposed appeal to voters I've never met and themselves don't know what they want.

[Blue_Adept]

13. All of them hold office. Therefor all are electable.

Of the main candidates at least and not the zero percenters.

Besides, THE PRIMARIES DETERMINE ELECTABILITY.

[brush]

15. Only one is electable to the presidency in 2020...

let's hope it's one of ours.

[doompatrol39]

11. I was thinking of a more recent movie..

..one with similar themes of "elect-ability", "able to defeat Trump" and "ready to lead on day 1" and all sorts of other things. It had all sorts of characters who were convinced they knew best, and dismissed naysayers.

I also remember the twist ending to that one that depressed a lot of people.

[marylandblue]

12. Yup. And that was a terrible movie. I will not be seeing Part II.

[doompatrol39]

14. It scares me how close we are to going down this same road...

....Of course for those that are standing at the crossroads encouraging us to go down that road, there is no downside. If they are wrong again, it will always be somebody else's fault. It couldn't possibly be that they were wrong, or that they didn't pick someone who would inspire enough voters in the right way to be able to win the election. It will be the fault of everyone else who didn't listen to them or wanted ponies or were naive or whatever else.

[USALiberal]

7. Wow, some far reaching logic there! Nt

[Celerity]

10. I know, according to some it is Biden or nothing, Biden or it's a rout

I guess we should just cancel the debates and primaries now and move to the general election.

[demmiblue]

16. ...