Pete Buttigieg 2020 campaign megathread

[Rookie Yinzer]

https://twitter.com/SawyerHackett/status/1190375615167373312?s=20

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

https://twitter.com/SawyerHackett/status/1190375615167373312?s=20

I mean, he’s polling poorly with African-Americans in no small part due to that community’s homophobia, so that part isn’t really his fault.  Oh and also because he fired a crooked police chief who happened to be black, but again not his fault the guy decided to commit a felony.

[Epaminondas]

The Buttigieg campaign is threading a needle: being recognised as a contender with great strengths, but carefully staying out of the internecine clashes and media dog race hypes of the Top3 ("Biden slams Warren's policies", "When is too old too old?", "The Sanders-Warren alliance can't hold", etc.).

It wouldn't surprise me one bit if he comes away with the Iowa caucus, similarly to how Obama clinched the state at the death in 2008.

He's just a less pugnacious figure, and that seems to soothe rural Dems' anxieties.

[Epaminondas]

...but neither Mayor Pete, nor Joe Biden, nor Amy Klobuchar are emphasizing the sensible critique - i.e. that Sanders plan for Medicare for All would be the most generous single payer model in the entire world and yet still fail to fund the health care system as we know it.

They're not talking about how some copayments and deductibles for those who can afford them would be fine. They're not talking about the structural changes that our health care system would need to function with all care compensated at the Medicare reimbursement rate. They're not talking about how private coinsurance could supplement public coverage while remaining much cheaper than the expensive and often inadequate private coverage that is bankrupting families and employers today.

Wake up, 2016 has happened. Dry technicalities cost Clinton the youth vote. Wild promises garnered Trump the senile vote.

Aim for the full loaf, you get a half loaf. Aim for only that, and you get nothing.

[Pollster]

The Democratic nominee, regardless of who it is, likely won't get higher than a margin of error net favorable rating. Republicans will say unfavorable without batting an eye, and Democrats will say favorable without thinking. Independents (most of whom are partisans who think they are above party labels) will break even, or lean one way by a negligible amount.

Also, there is virtually no difference between a +1 and -2 margin in 99% of polling thanks to MOE. Neither Buttigieg nor Warren is resoundingly popular or unpopular.

[Fuzzy Bear Loves Christian Missionaries]

Remember that guy who said we shouldn’t worry that the Republicans are going to call us socialists and just stand up for what we believe in? Where’d he go?

Nobody cares what Republicans will call us. M4A as it has been promoted by Warren and Sanders is deeply flawed on a policy level and deserves to be critiqued for it.

What's deeply flawed is our current system. ObamaCare was a fail.

Somewhat "yes" to both.

I'm a union member with GREAT health insurance.  It's why I work where I do, when I could possibly do better other places, salary-wise; the insurance is super.

My wife turns 65 in less than 2 months and has opted to take her Social Security to ensure that we can homeschool our youngest son.  She has the option of enrolling on Medicare, or staying on my plan.  When we looked at the differences, my plan was SOOOOOO much better that we decided to keep her on my plan, because Medicare would cover less and cost us more.

This is the real issue of M4A in that it will provide WORSE insurance for a number of people who have great insurance.  That includes millions of union members and public employees who are mass constituencies that are, as a whole, likely Democratic.  Klobuchar, Bennet, Buttigieg, and a few others have picked up on that, and this is why they're attacking Warren and Sanders.  And these voters are not wrong to take pause.  They are caught between the moral ideal that our nation should provide healthcare for all of its citizens, and the competing ideal that one's primary responsibility to their family and they need to ensure that their family's needs will be met in times of illness or injury.

Republicans (including Trump) avoid discussion of the uninsured.  (DeSantis was probably the most honest when he said that his plan for the uninsured was for them to "show up at the Emergency Room", without regard for all the ER WON'T do for people seeking assistance there.)
Democrats, however, have failed to frame this issue in terms of meeting the needs of the uninsured. This is, indeed, a moral crisis; the fact that so many of our citizens are left to suffer from untreated illnesses and injuries, and even die from them.  The richest country in the world has toothless, limping, people trudging to work every day to work at jobs, enduring pain at the workplace, because they have to.  It also has a bevy of medical-related bankruptcies, which aren't even talked about.

So I understand why Buttigieg is doing what he's doing.  He wants to win, and (I suppose) his plan would reduce the uninsured.  One of the problems here is that the Democrats have been consistently unable to make this the moral issue that it is.  Perhaps, if that happened, discussion of the needs of the uninsured working poor could be discussed rationally, but I suppose I'm aiming high.

Healthcare is an issue where I depart from much GOP orthodoxy, and it is a leading reason as to why I have cast votes for whatever Democrats I've cast votes for in recent years.

[Wakie77]

I would pay to see a Mayor Pete v Trump debate.  I'd give it about 10 minutes before Trump starts yelling slurs at him.

[Tender Branson]

It’s rather common for Presidential state visits to include the First Lady - wouldn’t that play poorly in countries like Russia, the Middle East, China, India, etc.? To have a gay couple visiting the country as a Presidential state visit?

Pete’s answer to Putin, Saudi Arabia & Co:

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1190847442125774848

[MarkD]

I would pay to see a Mayor Pete v Trump debate.  I'd give it about 10 minutes before Trump starts yelling slurs at him.

Yup!

Pete's my man! His plan for appointing Supreme Court Justices is excellent!

[Tarrin Kael]

At least Klobuchar and Biden have full plans with public options and ambitious measures for reducing costs. Maybe you can blame braindead political coverage for ignoring this in favor of the scaremongering melodramatics. But Buttigieg has little more than a slogan. He's contradicted himself on the details of his plan and the broad strokes alike.

How is Biden's plan more comprehensive than Pete's? I'm genuinely curious. This might help convince me to switch my support from Pete to Biden. As far as I can tell, Pete's plan is an extension of the public option such that it provides universal coverage in ways somewhat similar to multi-payer systems in Europe. I was under the impression that Biden was just offering a public option, not a universal system.

[libertpaulian]

At least Klobuchar and Biden have full plans with public options and ambitious measures for reducing costs. Maybe you can blame braindead political coverage for ignoring this in favor of the scaremongering melodramatics. But Buttigieg has little more than a slogan. He's contradicted himself on the details of his plan and the broad strokes alike.

How is Biden's plan more comprehensive than Pete's? I'm genuinely curious. This might help convince me to switch my support from Pete to Biden. As far as I can tell, Pete's plan is an extension of the public option such that it provides universal coverage in ways somewhat similar to multi-payer systems in Europe. I was under the impression that Biden was just offering a public option, not a universal system.

It's clearer on the details, probably because Biden didn't feel compelled to play footsie with M4A supporters for months while trying to get noticed. Buttigieg has a couple of ideas that place his plan marginally to the left of Biden's, such as out-of-pocket limits for Medicare and price caps, but fundamentally they are similar plans.

Biden also has remained silent on importing prescription drugs from Canada, presumably out of consideration to traditional Democratic allies like Senator Joe Mylan.

Anyway, te biggest difference between the two, for most voters, is that Buttigieg has, until now, praised single-payer as a long-term goal. Biden doesn't say that. But this isn't necessarily an important distinction, especially as Mayor Pete's recent rhetoric has been as dismissive of single payer as anything we have heard from Biden.

Buttigieg has executed a pivot no less dramatic than the disastrous turn that sank Kamala Harris, but he appears to have pulled it off with grace. It's clear that after quietly experimenting with different approaches, he's found his path, and it goes straight through the swathe of Warren supporters who like her not because she is the field's leading non-Sanders progressive, but in spite of that.

There's nothing wrong with experimenting with different ideas or evolving on them.  Marco Rubio went from being a neo-con on immigration (Gang of 8, anyone?!) in the spring of 2015 to being Diet Trump on the issue in winter 2016!

[Yellowhammer]

Now that Beto is out, Buttjudge has to be the biggest empty suit in the race.

[Cinemark]

I've definitely warmed up on Buttigieg again, but his lack of appeal with black voters is worrisome.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

It's not just that with AA voters, he's from IN, which is known for racial profiling.  Also, with Mike Pence as Veep, who is from IN, who can care less, except for rich

[America Needs R'hllor]

It’s rather common for Presidential state visits to include the First Lady - wouldn’t that play poorly in countries like Russia, the Middle East, China, India, etc.? To have a gay couple visiting the country as a Presidential state visit?

Pete’s answer to Putin, Saudi Arabia & Co:

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1190847442125774848

That's great. If he's VP or SoS, I'll hold him to this word.

[OSR stands with Israel]

It’s rather common for Presidential state visits to include the First Lady - wouldn’t that play poorly in countries like Russia, the Middle East, China, India, etc.? To have a gay couple visiting the country as a Presidential state visit?

Pete’s answer to Putin, Saudi Arabia & Co:

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1190847442125774848

That's great. If he's VP or SoS, I'll hold him to this word.

If Mayor Pete gets elected you would hold the record for most accurate TL ever

[America Needs R'hllor]

It’s rather common for Presidential state visits to include the First Lady - wouldn’t that play poorly in countries like Russia, the Middle East, China, India, etc.? To have a gay couple visiting the country as a Presidential state visit?

Pete’s answer to Putin, Saudi Arabia & Co:

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1190847442125774848

That's great. If he's VP or SoS, I'll hold him to this word.

If Mayor Pete gets elected you would hold the record for most accurate TL ever

I mean, my TL had him winning in 2024 after becoming Governor in 2020 so it won't be very accurate in almost any reality

[OSR stands with Israel]

It’s rather common for Presidential state visits to include the First Lady - wouldn’t that play poorly in countries like Russia, the Middle East, China, India, etc.? To have a gay couple visiting the country as a Presidential state visit?

Pete’s answer to Putin, Saudi Arabia & Co:

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1190847442125774848

That's great. If he's VP or SoS, I'll hold him to this word.

If Mayor Pete gets elected you would hold the record for most accurate TL ever

I mean, my TL had him winning in 2024 after becoming Governor in 2020 so it won't be very accurate in almost any reality

True but who would have thought in 2018 a mayor of some unknown city would be a future president. You might have been the only person in the world outside of maybe Mayor Pete himself who thought so lol

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

It’s rather common for Presidential state visits to include the First Lady - wouldn’t that play poorly in countries like Russia, the Middle East, China, India, etc.? To have a gay couple visiting the country as a Presidential state visit?

Pete’s answer to Putin, Saudi Arabia & Co:

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1190847442125774848

That's great. If he's VP or SoS, I'll hold him to this word.

If Mayor Pete gets elected you would hold the record for most accurate TL ever

I mean, my TL had him winning in 2024 after becoming Governor in 2020 so it won't be very accurate in almost any reality

True but who would have thought in 2018 a mayor of some unknown city would be a future president. You might have been the only person in the world outside of maybe Mayor Pete himself who thought so lol

People have been calling him a rising star for years.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

It’s rather common for Presidential state visits to include the First Lady - wouldn’t that play poorly in countries like Russia, the Middle East, China, India, etc.? To have a gay couple visiting the country as a Presidential state visit?

Pete’s answer to Putin, Saudi Arabia & Co:

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1190847442125774848

That's great. If he's VP or SoS, I'll hold him to this word.

If Mayor Pete gets elected you would hold the record for most accurate TL ever

I mean, my TL had him winning in 2024 after becoming Governor in 2020 so it won't be very accurate in almost any reality

True but who would have thought in 2018 a mayor of some unknown city would be a future president. You might have been the only person in the world outside of maybe Mayor Pete himself who thought so lol

People have been calling him a rising star for years.

I don’t think anyone had even heard of him until like April/May 2019 (and even then, only folks who followed politics closely learned of his existence).  Not only was he not considered a rising star, but he was pretty much a complete unknown who no one predicted would be a serious candidate.  When he got in, folks expected Steve Eric Swalwell/Tim Ryan polling/fundraising numbers from him.

[Tender Branson]

Buttigieg started a mega ad buy in IA:

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/468968-buttigieg-releases-ad-in-iowa-amid-rise-in-polls

[libertpaulian]

He's been considered a rising star for a few years now:

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/opinion/sunday/the-first-gay-president.html

South Bend, Ind. — IF you went into some laboratory to concoct a perfect Democratic candidate, you’d be hard pressed to improve on Pete Buttigieg, the 34-year-old second-term mayor of this Rust Belt city, where he grew up and now lives just two blocks from his parents.

Education? He has a bachelor’s from Harvard and a master’s from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

Public service? He’s a lieutenant in the Navy Reserve. For seven months in 2014, he was deployed to Afghanistan — and took an unpaid leave from work in order to go.

He regularly attends Sunday services at his Episcopal church. He runs half-marathons. His TEDx talk on urban innovation in South Bend is so polished and persuasive that by the end of it, you’ve hopped online to price real estate in the city.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2014/03/10/the-most-interesting-mayor-youve-never-heard-of/

Regardless of how the city fares in the next seven months, that military background also makes the mayor stand out from the rest of the army of data-happy millennials that define the younger strata of the Democratic Party. If he has larger ambitions, and the local whispers about whether he would campaign for governor or Congress this year assume he does (he isn't running for either, and has instead already announced his intention to run for re-election in 2015), it's clear military experience has never hurt the ambitious.

When Buttigieg was at Harvard, he participated in protests against the war in Iraq, and even penned a few lines of President Bush-inspired poetry, a skill he perhaps absorbed from being around his literary-minded father (Sample rhyme: "But please, make no mistake here, / no Misunderestimation. / Reversing four years of my rule / Would take a generation."). "The decision to serve needs to be independent of your politics," however, he now says.

Pretty glowing words for a Middle America mayor!

[Calthrina950]

https://twitter.com/SawyerHackett/status/1190375615167373312?s=20

I mean, he’s polling poorly with African-Americans in no small part due to that community’s homophobia, so that part isn’t really his fault.  Oh and also because he fired a crooked police chief who happened to be black, but again not his fault the guy decided to commit a felony.

Not just this. Buttigieg's whole record over poverty and police brutality issues is looked upon unfavorably by many blacks. Conversely, a strong plurality are still behind Biden because he was Obama's Vice-President, and is hence, trusted.

[Morning in Atlas]

https://twitter.com/SawyerHackett/status/1190375615167373312?s=20

I mean, he’s polling poorly with African-Americans in no small part due to that community’s homophobia, so that part isn’t really his fault.  Oh and also because he fired a crooked police chief who happened to be black, but again not his fault the guy decided to commit a felony.

Funny how literally everyone I've seen make this take is white.

[John Dule]

https://twitter.com/SawyerHackett/status/1190375615167373312?s=20

I mean, he’s polling poorly with African-Americans in no small part due to that community’s homophobia, so that part isn’t really his fault.  Oh and also because he fired a crooked police chief who happened to be black, but again not his fault the guy decided to commit a felony.

Funny how literally everyone I've seen make this take is white.

Is it really a "take" when you can just look at the polling? African-American support for gay marriage is routinely 10% lower than white support for it.