Democratic Primaries
Related: About this forumPete Buttigieg May Have Just Found a Way to Get Noticed in the Crowded Democratic Primary
Pete Buttigieg May Have Just Found a Way to Get Noticed in the Crowded Democratic Primary
By Josh Voorhees
Feb 22, 20196:51 PM
Pete Buttigieg is having a hard time getting noticed. One month after launching his presidential campaign, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, remains little more than a hard-to-pronounce afterthought in a field that is getting deeper by the week. According to the most recent polling from Morning Consult, 62 percent of Democrats say theyve never heard of Buttigieg, while nearly half of those who do know his name say they havent heard enough to form an opinion. The top-line numbers are more daunting still: Buttigieg polls at 0 percentas in zero, nada, nothingamong Democrats, both nationally and in the early nominating states.
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Buttigieg, though, may have found the tiniest of openings this weekperhaps by accident.
During an event Tuesday in Philadelphia, an audience member asked him whether, if elected, he would be willing to pack the Supreme Court with liberal justices in response to the high courts recent shift rightward. I have not reached a considered position on the question of court-packing, Buttigieg said over a few nervous-sounding laughs in the crowd. Although I dont think we should be laughing at it. Because in some ways its no more a shattering of norms than whats already been done to get the judiciary to where it is today.
It was an off-the-cuff, noncommittal answer, and yet it generated small but noticeable excitement in some corners of the internet. The 1/20/21 Project, a court-packing campaign with the backing of people like Harvard law professors Laurence Tribe and Mark Tushnet, celebrated the answer, as did NARAL president Ilyse Hogue. Progressive outlets like Common Dreams and Daily Kos likewise reacted positively, and ThinkProgress even went as far as to declare that Buttigieg had proved himself the only Democrat in the race who seems serious about governing.
Link to tweet
A few tweets and effusive blog posts wont turn Buttigieg into a national figure, but they do suggest that, even in a field that is proposing bold policies on everything from day care to climate change, theres still room for a candidate to go big in other, less obvious areas. Buttigiegs full answer, which didnt make it into the clip originally shared online, points to a few such directions he might consider:
more...
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/02/pete-buttigieg-court-packing-electoral-college.html
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
IluvPitties
(3,181 posts)with progressive judges, just like the cons are doing now with their far-right loons.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Garrett78
(10,721 posts)I suspect half those surveyed are lying.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
DavidDvorkin
(19,477 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden