Pete Buttigieg 2020 campaign megathread

[BlueSwan]

I've just watched the Fox Town Hall and have to admit, he's a pretty impressive candidate. These kinds of candidates have brought Dems to victory with Carter, Clinton and Obama. If he finds a way to improve numbers among minorities, he's got a shot once the field gets narrower.

He's a superb communicator, extremely likable, authentic and exudes über-intelligence. Being 37 and gay sounds like a no-go in a US presidential election, but I am all in on this guy. He's very clearly the best in the field and the contrast to Trump is absolutely amazing.

[BlueSwan]

https://politicalwire.com/2019/06/03/buttigieg-wouldnt-have-pressured-franken-to-resign/

Good d*** it!

Back to undecided

I like that response.
Ugh, bad response.

[BlueSwan]

I'm still a bit torn.

On the one hand, Buttigieg is my overall preferred candidate. There's no one in the field I would rather have in the white house than him.

Also, I think he is way more electable than Warren and Sanders.

Yet, I still fear for his overall electability. Being 37, highly intellectual and gay may play well to most liberals, but could spell trouble with a lot of lesser educated americans. I also don't see Pete turning out the minority vote like Obama did. On the other hand, the guy is super likable, in a way that many of the dem candidates are not. While he is one of the smartest guys in the field, he doesn't appear aloof or condescending or fake, like some of the others are prone to. I don't think he turns off the white working class the way that Warren does, for instance.

[BlueSwan]

His defeat in 2010 doesn't count, because 2010 was an extreme GOP year and especially in IN, where Republicans gained the Senate seat in this election and had a swing of 9% in their favour in the combined US House vote, while Dems lost 13%. They also dominated all other statewide offices.

He ran statewide once and got crushed unlike Evan Bayh or Joe Donnelly.

You are also comparing apples with oranges: Bayh and Donnelly didn't run in 2010.

He’s getting a free pass from the media.
He lost by 25 points. Name me a democrat that is running for higher office that lost by 25 Pts??? Name me one Democrat
What about the lying ads and fake endorsements? You approve sending emails and if they don’t opt out it counts as an endorsement? Again not covered by the mainstream media.
What about editing and copying photos of black children with Pete again not real but photoshopped.

I smell a rat. This sounds an awful lot like the fake smear attacks on Hillary that the left picked up from fake russian trolls. And it is coming from a brand new poster. Where’s the evidence for these claims?

[BlueSwan]

Oh ok, I get it.

It's really bad for a candidate to run for president when they lost a race by 25 points.

But if that race was more than 25 years ago, then it's ok.  Even if it wasn't just one race but five in a row lost.

Buttigieg lost to Mourdock in 2010, 9 years ago.  So I take it we're specifically looking for candidates who lost by >25 points within nine years of running for president?

Hmm, where could we find such a man.

OMG, the ownage! :-D

[BlueSwan]

There is video where Mayor Pete a few years back is blaming black families not having a role model for the inequities in education.

He is probably the most anti-American American candidate to run for the Dem nomination in decades.

Where's the evidence?

[BlueSwan]

How is he wrong? That's certainly part of the explanation for negative social heritage in poor neighbourhoods. Not the only explanation, but absolutely part of it.

[BlueSwan]

I think this is all BS. Mayor Pete’s lack of current appeal to minority communities probably has next to nothing to do with any of his actual political positions or statements he has made. These criticisms mostly comes from a few internet leftists, very few of whom are actually minorities themselves.

[BlueSwan]

I think this is all BS. Mayor Pete’s lack of current appeal to minority communities probably has next to nothing to do with any of his actual political positions or statements he has made. These criticisms mostly comes from a few internet leftists, very few of whom are actually minorities themselves.

Then what is your explanation for it?

A few things.

First up, white liberals tend to be much more socially liberal and economically moderate than minority democrats who tend to be more economically left-leaning, but socially moderate or even conservative.

Second, the gay "issue" in itself is no problem with white liberals - might even be seen as an advantage - but it could pose problems with more socially conservative minority democrats.

Third, minority democrats historically tend to support well-known mainstream candidates that are deemed highly electable. Hence their great support for Biden currently, and for Clinton over even "their own" Barack Obama in 2008 until Obama proved that he could win over white voters.

Fourth, at an identity level, Buttigieg oozes intellectual elite, which is absolutely fine with white college educated liberals, but could be a problem with people with less education, and the segment of minority democrats tend to have less education than white liberals.

[BlueSwan]

I think this is all BS. Mayor Pete’s lack of current appeal to minority communities probably has next to nothing to do with any of his actual political positions or statements he has made. These criticisms mostly comes from a few internet leftists, very few of whom are actually minorities themselves.

Not true. There was that Root columnist who was mentioned on this thread earlier. There is that South Bend councilman who endorsed Biden over Buttigieg, and criticized the latter for his lack of outreach to the community. There are the black leaders in South Carolina who were angered by Buttigieg's approporiation of their endorsements for his campaign. To say nothing of many of his own black constituents in South Bend, many of whom criticized him to his face regarding the police shooting there a few months ago. I remember seeing a CBS News report which discussed Buttigieg's problems with black voters, and they interviewed a black lady who came to one of his town halls. She said she supported Buttigieg as Mayor, but when they asked her whether or not she would support him in the primary, she effectively said "Hell no!" and was adamant about it.

I could probably find other examples, but this should be enough to dispel your argument.

There are more than 300 million americans. Picking a few loud-mouthed professional debaters is no proof of any trend whatsoever. But even looking at the loud-mouthed professional debaters, most of the criticism of Buttigieg seems to come from white leftists.

[BlueSwan]

Buttipete and his Jeremiah Wright moment yesterday:

https://www.dailywire.com/news/buttigieg-nods-in-agreement-with-reverend-william-barber-claiming-illegals-are-reclaiming-stolen-land

Such a hardcore right-winger this Buttigieg, amirite?

[BlueSwan]

I wonder who would be a good running mate for Pete? His two biggest flaws are inexperience and lack of minority support. I can’t think of anyone off the top of my head that would address these issues

Booker or Harris seems like solid options. But “lack of experience” is a non-starter anyway, when you are running against the least experienced and most incompetent president of all time.

[BlueSwan]

Buttipete has purchased a 2 million $ ad for SC, the first TV-ad campaign there so far:

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/472262-buttigieg-to-run-first-televised-ads-in-south-carolina

https://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/election/article237944489.html

It's......ok. Pete can not deliver an inspirational message like Obama. It sounds....forced. Also, I'm not really sure a "coming together" message plays all that well in this political climate. He still has my support though.

[BlueSwan]

Why do people think it is a good idea to have another unqualified President?

Lol, how is he unqualified? He’s probably the most intelligent person in the entire field.

[BlueSwan]

Why do people think it is a good idea to have another unqualified President?

Lol, how is he unqualified? He’s probably the most intelligent person in the entire field.

Speaking broken Norwegian and claiming that Ulysses (LMAO) is your favorite book is intellectual posturing. Buttigieg is high school AP student smart but he peaked around there.

Speaking of intellectual posturing...

I'm a psychologist. I have administered loads of IQ-tests back when I still worked in the field. There is absolutely zero doubt that Pete Buttigieg is highly intelligent and it has nothing to do with speaking a bit of Norwegian or what his favourite book is.

[BlueSwan]

Buttipete calls 60+ million Trump voters deplorable racists:

https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1201947327596048389

That seems to me a pretty diplomatic way to put it for Mayor Pete. I probably wouldn't have been as diplomatic.

[BlueSwan]

The important thing is that none of the attacks on Pete would hurt him an a general election. Only leftists are p*ssed off because he might c*ckblock Bernie.

[BlueSwan]

Didn't people also complain about Obama not waiting his turn in 2008?

[BlueSwan]

I think Pete should drop out and endorse Biden. He made his play, he did very very well in Iowa and New Hampshire and he has positioned himself to be a future leader of the party. But he has no path to the nomination and should not play spoiler.

I understand Klobuchar wanting to win Minnesota before dropping out, but really, what is the point?

Warren has a very good reason to stay in, which is the health of Bernie Sanders. It's amazing to me that this isn't a bigger issue, but the guy is almost 80 and had heart issues just a few months back. Another incident and he may cut the campaign, in which case things would suddenly look very good for Warren. However if nothing happens over the next couple of weeks, she too should drop out.

Bloomberg is basically just c*c-blocking Biden at this point. He should realize that right now he is only helping the candidate he least wants to win to the nomination (Sanders), so he obviously should drop out, but I just don't see it happening until after ST given that he has spent half a billion.