Pete Buttigieg and Julian Castro.

[BlueStater]

So I have a question about these two candidates.

Castro was widely floated around here and in other places as a potential running mate for Hillary Clinton leading up to the 2016 presidential election. I was firmly opposed to Castro as a running mate, feeling his experience as a mayor was insufficient to be Vice President.

Pete Buttigieg has been riding high in the polls lately. From what I've seen of the guy, I like him. He's intelligent, articulate, and charming. It's easy to see why people are drawn to him. However, like Castro, he's only been a mayor and he's not running for VP. He's running for President. I would like to support Buttigieg (if he does well in the primaries), but I can't say I don't find his lack of significant political experience to be a bit troubling.

Also, San Antonio, which Castro was mayor of, is one of the most populated cities in the United States and has quite a bit more people than South Bend, Indiana.

So what I want to know is why is Buttigieg doing so well in polling while Castro, whose resume is equally or more impressive, is doing poorly?

[handmade34]

1. charisma

for the most part, people vote on emotions and not fact or experience of the candidate... politics and voting is really quite irrational

[pnwmom]

2. Castro was the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for two years -- not just a mayor. nt

[hedda_foil]

3. The only ones who really support Castro are the DC-Clinton establishment, who love him.

[Control-Z]

17. Really?

Who told you that? I haven't heard it.

[Cha]

19. Oh yeah.. have any proof of that?

[Corgigal]

4. My theory.

Everything Pete has done since young adulthood, he has done to place him exactly at this moment.
He's disciplined and to me, I'm always amazed at someone who at a young age has decided what they wanted to do with their life and achieved it. While he does the ah, shucks mid west routine, he's a predator. We need the best fighter on the democratic ticket, more then ever. I'll take this smart young man who has already thought of every question anyone will ask him. He's prepared.

[elleng]

5. I think your understanding of what actually constitutes executive experience is lacking;

of necessity, being a mayor demands political experience, as well as the ability to EXECUTE matters for ones constituents.

He's been mayor since 2012, and he won his 2d term with overwhelming support of the electorate.

In 2014 Buttigieg announced that he would seek a second term and went on to win the Democratic primary with 78% of the vote, defeating Henry Davis, Jr., the city councilman from the 2nd District.[48] In November 2015 he was elected to his second term as mayor of South Bend with over 80% of the vote, defeating Republican Kelly Jones.

Buttigieg was first elected mayor of South Bend in 2011 and was reelected in 2015. During his time as mayor of South Bend, Buttigieg's policies were widely credited with spurring economic growth and business investment. In 2013 he won GovFresh's Mayor of the Year award.

One of Buttigieg's signature programs has been the "Vacant and Abandoned Properties Initiative" (known locally as "1,000 Properties in 1,000 Days), a project to repair or demolish blighted properties across the city.[41][42] The goal was reached by the program's scheduled end date in November 2015.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Buttigieg

[BlueStater]

9. Sure, it's political experience.

It's not typically seen as significant enough experience to prepare one for running a country of 300 million people, though.

I remember when Giuliani ran for president in 2008 and some people questioned whether even being mayor of the largest city in the US, one with more people than many states, was enough experience for the presidency.

[marylandblue]

12. Giuliani had two other problems.

One was that he wasn't nearly conservative for the average Repub voter, and

Two is from people who actually know him -- he was always nuts, but he hid it better back then.

[SMC22307]

6. Buttigieg's a gay man throwing "Christian" Mike Pence's hypocrisy back in his face...

that's gotta be worth a few polling points.

[calimary]

8. Yep! I like that, too!

SOMEBODY needs to throw Mike Pence's "Christian" hypocrisy back in his face!

[SMC22307]

11. Reverend Barber of Moral Mondays and Pete Buttigieg would be a powerful force.

I attended many of the early MMs in Raleigh, NC and the crowds were diverse as far as religion -- my little group alone was Catholic, Methodist, Southern Baptist, agnostic, and atheist. Older white women who RUN to the polls and we're all a bit intrigued by Mayor Pete.

[calimary]

18. Inslee supporter here, but I agree.

Very intrigued by Mayor Pete.

Some candidates I would vote for because I had to. Because trump. But I‘d vote for Buttigieg because I would eagerly want to.

[SMC22307]

22. I watched Inslee interviewed on the PBS News Hour a couple of weeks ago.

Need to do more research, but I like what I heard...

[marylandblue]

7. He's a political genius. Imagine a guy who reads books on political theory and communication

Then develops(or perhaps is born with) a political persona that matches the best of what's in those books. Plus, based on those books, develops a new message in an appealing package and chooses the most opportune moment in a generation to deliver that message.

That's exactly what Pete is doing. I can see the lessons of those books being applied in everything he does. And that's why he decided to run for President now, despite his youth. 2020 is the year of America's new political coalition that will control the policies of the next 40 years, the way Reagan controlled the last forty. 2024 would be too late.

[elleng]

10. YES, blue!

[Indygram]

13. I have a feeling that the media are building him up

Just to tear him down, because they get off on that sort of thing.

Here's my thoughts on Mayor Pete. He's smart and well spoken. I like him, he's a good guy. He is new and he's the first LGBT person to run for president (at least that I know of). That makes him novel and new and I suspect that might be some of the appeal for many democrats, which is great that he is being supported.

This is probably not going to be very popular because I know he has a lot of support here...but I don't think he can beat Trump. I have started watching him speak multiple times and I always lose interest within 5 minutes. I don't feel at all engaged when he speaks and with my short attention span he loses me every time. I don't know if it's the tone of his voice feels a bit monotone to me or what it is but he just can't seem to inspire me. I really want to like the guy more, I really do. I just don't get the appeal no matter how many times I try to watch him.

That's what worries me. And Trump is going to be a formidable opponent who knows how to manipulate people and the media. Mayor Pete has not been vetted on a national level and it's hard telling what kind of things the dirty GOP is going to dig up or try to twist. What is Trump going to be campaigning for re-election over? What is his only obsession? Immigration and the border. Democrats MUST be able to completely DESTROY Trump's lies and BS about immigration and the border. Pete's not the one to do that. He IS, however, the PERFECT one to stand on a debate stage with Pence and have the debate on religion that America needs to expose the hypocrisy of the religious right.

That's my honest opinion.

[not_the_one]

14. I apparently didn't watch the same speeches that you watched.

I found him incredibly engaging.

When he was being interviewed and taking questions, he took the time the explain his answers. Sometimes that will lose someone. But I had no problem with it. I found that he could go the extra step and back up his answers with logic, and he always included compassion and empathy in his solutions.

[RLG]

16. It's April 2019.

Right now, Buttigieg is the shiny new penny, but the political winds can shift quickly.

The key is can Buttigieg keep up this momentum for the next few months?

It's sad how the media can build up someone, only to bring them down. Look at what happened to O'Rourke. At one time, everyone was eager for him to run. Now, he's yesterday's news.

[StevieM]

20. Like you said, political winds can shift quickly. Beto could wind up being tomorrow's news as well.

He is polling well enough for the early stages of the race. I wouldn't count him out.

[rogue emissary]

21. Simplest answer is race and mysoginy.

There are other things, but I feel it comes down to race and how he chooses to run his campaign.

For examples, Castro goes out of his way not to attack Democrats and especially not to take shots at Hillary. He doesn't chase or make excuses for the white working class that voted for Donny. The mass media loves it when we criticize our side or run reaching out to the conservatives.

He also highlights the women in his life as important factors for his running and forming his political conciseness, which is different from most of the other men that are running.