Here’s a clip of Pete Buttigieg’s announcement that he’s ending his campaign:
.@PeteButtigieg: "I am making the difficult decision to suspend my campaign for the presidency. I will no longer seek to be the 2020 Democratic nominee for president, but I will do everything in my power to ensure that we have a new Democratic president come January." pic.twitter.com/pbDXsWwFPZ
— CSPAN (@cspan) March 2, 2020
He didn’t endorse anyone outright, but reading between the lines, it’s clear Buttigieg is clearing the way for Biden.
It was a good speech. The ending was particularly strong — worth watching the whole thing.
Open thread!
schrodingers_cat
Thank You Pete.
Elizabelle
There is a lot to be said for grace. Well done, Pete.
Maybe he could be a Deputy Secretary at State, or something. Think of all the agencies that will need rebuilding once we get the grifters and destroyers away from them.
Or a Cabinet secretary. Pete did himself a lot of good with the run; introduced himself to us all.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
spoke to my sister who canvassed for Warren today in California.
She’s shy around strangers, but she really cares about Warren so she’s canvassing for the first time in her life.
She did 30 homes in a white working class neighborhood and she had 2 for Warren, 1 for Biden and the rest were undecided.
I was shocked. You always read about how California is a high absentee voter state, yet none had voted or seemed engaged. Also no one voting for Sanders or Bloomberg, who she says have been blanketing the state with ads.
mali muso
I pitched in some money to his early campaign, and although I didn’t really like his tack to the center, I am really proud of what his run accomplished in terms of setting precedent that our party truly is a big tent. Counting on seeing good things from him in the future!
Chyron HR
I’m so old I remember when the establishment was rigging it for him.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
I usually only watch the 11pm news here in LA, Bloomberg and Bernie usually have 2 spots each during the 35 minute broadcast. Steyer usually had one as well and last night EW had one as well.
Bex
@schrodingers_cat: Thank you.
Humdog
Good job, Pete. He helped change my prior opinion that nothing good comes from Indiana.
stolen from WaPo comments:
Super-callous-narcissistic-ever-lyin’-POTUS!
Every little Tweet from him is something quite atrocious!
I bet this group could continue the song. Where is Subaru Diane?
Sab
What happens to campaign war chests when the candidate is no longer running for office? Can they sit on it for a few years, or do they need to disperse it ( to charities or another campaign)
ETA: Disburse not disperse.
dmsilev
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: I’m old-fashioned enough to still like getting a print newspaper every morning, and Bloomberg has been absolutely swamping that ad channel. There’s a team, or maybe just one very dedicated, Sanders supporters writing ‘Bernie’ in rainbow sidewalk chalk all over town, for whatever that’s worth.
Sab
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Buttigieg is like Harris, there is always 2024 and 2028 for them (assuming we all don’t die from Skippy the supervirus). No reason to fight to the bitter end.
randy khan
Definitely good news for Biden.
Wag
A very good exit speech, it struck the right ambulance between aspirational and conciliatory. I am proud of Pete, and I am quite sure that we have not heard the last from him.
dmsilev
@Sab: Most suspended campaigns have debts rather than assets (suspending rather than ending allows you to continue to raise money to pay off the debt) so whatever the legalities I doubt it makes much practical difference.
Kent
@Sab:
If there is any money left, they can donate the funds to charities or political parties; they can contribute $2800 per election to other candidates; and they can save the money in case the candidate chooses to run again.
They can also throw a monster party for campaign staff.
Sab
@dmsilev: What if the candidate is young, campaign not in debt, and candidate wants to run later? Can they sit on the money for a few years until an opportunity presents itself?
Kent
@Sab: Yes. Doesn’t even have to be for the same office.
Sab
@Kent: Thanks. That was my question answered.
HinTN
@dmsilev: Our Tennessee RFD mailbox gets three, four, FSM knows how many Bloomberg flyers every day.
ETA: Well done, Pete.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Chyron HR: The Stonecutters must be slipping.
A Ghost To Most
I love it when a plan comes together. Thanks Pete.
Elizabelle
@Wag:
LOL. You gotta love autocorrect. That’s classic.
Barb 2
I will miss his cutting remarks aimed at Sanders during the debates.
Sanders is the real problem and the opposition research on him is damniǹg. Trump and Putin prefer Sanders.
Mayor Pete will be around for a long time. But he leaves this battlefield with class. I will respect him for his active attack on Sanders. Sanders is too old and as pointed out after the last debates he doesn’t look well. Also there is the bit about how he mistreated his Senate staffers.
My mail in Ballot is for Warren. I voted to Shirley Chisholm way back in my college years. Damned it I want to see a woman President in my life time. Shirley would have been far better than Nixon.
Warren is playing the long game. So I voted with my heart. She is the best. Gosh a really smart President after the Dump?
Anyone who keeps demanding that Warren get out of the race – that’s what the pie filter is for! Also the pie graphics make this blog look pretty!
ziggy
I am tearing up at his speech, what a quality person! Hope he has a bright future. The democratic party was lucky to have such a talented field.
mad citizen
Pete, run for Governor already. I wonder what the polling is for this. The state is in good shape, but there are always coattails in a Blue Wave.
“He helped change my prior opinion that nothing good comes from Indiana.”
Really? Every state must have something good, I hope. Here’s a few inventions from Indiana:
Not to mention Philo Farnsworth’s development of electronic television in Fort Wayne: If you’re watching television you can thank the inventor Philo Farnsworth and the work he did in Fort Wayne Indiana. In 1939 Farnsworth began mass-producing television transmitters, receivers, TV cameras, and radios at his Farnsworth Radio and Television Corporation in Fort Wayne.
RCA paid Farnsworth a million dollars for his invention of electronic television, but he continued to manufacture in Fort Wayne until 1951 when he sold his company to international telephone and telegraph. There he developed the forerunner of today’s air-traffic control systems. Farnsworth lived in his home in Fort Wayne until 1967 and died in 1971, the father of television.
Elizabelle
@Barb 2: I know.
Some of the threads resemble a well stocked bakery. Pie after pie after pie. (Cakes and tarts and Catcake, too.)
Jeffro
The last two minutes were Obama Classic, and I mean that mostly as a compliment.
he’s going to be an awesome surrogate from now through Election Day
Kent
@Barb 2: I expect Klobuchar is gone soon too. If this comes down to a 3-way race between Sanders, Warren, and Biden then the dynamic starts to get really interesting. Bloomberg will have to start questioning whether his staying in the race is productive or not.
Warren has the sharpest elbows of the bunch BY FAR. If she is standing on the stage between Bernie and Biden it will be very interesting to see which way she leans and how that affects the dynamic of the race.
Hob
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: I’ve been doing some canvassing for Warren in SF. In terms of voter engagement, I think it depends where you are— a lot of people I talked to today had already voted, and those who hadn’t mostly had a pretty strong idea of who they’ll vote for. But last month I was still hearing a lot of “well I like X, Y, or even Z, but I’m gonna wait and see about IA/NH/NV because I want to back a winner”… which is silly and frustrating, but I kind of get it, since California hasn’t voted this early in the year for a long time and so people here are used to seeing the field already narrowed down more.
I also got one person in their early 20s who’s only voted once before and is like “Holy shit, how am I supposed to figure out what to do?” But at least they seem interested.
The Dangerman
@Humdog:
I think you can change “precocious” to “unconscious” and be headed in the right direction.
Anya
@A Ghost To Most: where you at the establishment meeting when this was decided?
Sab
@Elizabelle: I really love the new pie filter. So easy to use. No guessing about how exactly they spell and capitalize or not. Plus Catcake is always a possibility.
I used to only pie known trolls. I cannot believe how many regulars I have pied lately. Good for the site long term. Pie ’em this season, unpie them later and life goes on, with no feelings hurt.
Elizabelle
@Sab: Yup. Stridency and utter repetitiveness — life is too short.
Pie is good. And we can always peek under the crust. (Toggle switch.)
Yutsano
@The Dangerman: “Even though every thought of his is right from the subconscious”
Kind of works.
Marcopolo
Hats off to Pete. He was one of the 5 candidates I supported financially. I’m down to Warren as the last one still in the race and it’s not looking so hot there. Oh well, I’ll be supporting whomever comes out the winner.
Back to Pete, that was a good speech. I look forward to seeing what he does next. I think I agree with the folks who are suggesting he move to a place that is more conducive to electing a D to state or national office. I don’t see that place being Indiana at this time.
Ohio Mom
Humdog: Sounds like it could be a Randy Rainbow lyric.
On another, completely unrelated note, I am wondering if there is research on early voting and what exactly is the optimal length of an early voting period.
I think a expanded time period is essential and necessary but I am also getting the feeling that it’s not a good idea to have a too early start to early voting. I hope some political scientists are collecting dat on this.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Elizabelle: I prefer cheesecake.
Elizabelle
Some nice news for Joe Biden, out of the Richmond Times Dispatch:
Glad to see this. John Warner is a good guy; our emeritus Senator. Showed real political courage bucking his party when they tried to run Oliver North for Senate.
Elizabelle
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Cheesecake is one of the major food groups.
Omnes Omnibus
@Marcopolo: He has strong ties to his local community. For some people, that is important.
Elizabelle
There were 26 Republican signers on the recent WaPost op ed about the Senate being broken.
I wonder how many of them might endorse Biden, with whom every one of them served, I think.
The Dangerman
@Yutsano:
Indeed, but I was thinking “unconscious” in a Ramones kinda way (“I Wanna Be Sedated”
ETA: I’ll take the Rip Van Winkle pill right now as long as I wake up to “No Trump” and “No Coronavirus”. And Dodgers WS Champions, of course!
J R in WV
We were eating dinner with MSNBC on, and of course (thank dawg!) covered the whole speech, including Chasten’s introduction of his husband, which was pretty good for a guy who isn’t running for office.
It was pretty sweet how he was nearly overcome at a couple of points in his brief introductory remarks.
Pete’s speech was really good, and by the time he was doing the great stem-winder finale, he was really able to give Obama a run for the money, I was quite impressed. I hope he gets some more experience managing tough situations and does another run before I kick the ole bucket, being an old boomer.
I can’t believe guys that much older than me are deluded that they can run for and execute the office of president of this huge and complex nation. So deluded!!
Ken
Paraphrasing a comment in the last thread, heads there’s a conspiracy, tails the conspiracy is so vast it even controls coin flips.
Leto
@mad citizen:
That’s the mf’er who developed the OJ-314, or the GSH-56/57? I’d like to have a few words with him, as would a few thousand other people… :P
Jeffro
@Elizabelle: Awesome!
Not solely because of Warner, of course, but I think the VA results are going to surprise people.
Wag
@Elizabelle: Hangs my head in shame. Curse you autocorrect!
Autocorrect and I have a love/hate relationship
debbie
@Marcopolo:
He can stay and work to make it a better place.
Kent
I think the answer will be entirely different for primary and general elections.
WaterGirl
I haven’t read the thread yet, but as soon as I saw the title, I knew it would be a Betty Cracker post. Thank you.
kindness
I wonder what it’s going to take for Bloomberg to heave ho?
Sab
@Wag: We can tell what you meant to say.
My old auto correct used to change whole phrases, not just the occassional word. Stuff came out complete gibberish. Steeplechase told me how to turn it off.
Now my mistakes are either typos or my own (e.g. disperse =/= disburse).
phdesmond
listening to the whole speech. bbl.
Elizabelle
@Jeffro: What’s your guess? I don’t have one.
Sab
@kindness: He wants Warren gone because she hates corruption and oligarchs, and knows the mechanics of what they do to get so rich.
hitchhiker
As i understand it, the situation we’re in with respect to Biden and Bernie goes like this.
In November, Bernie takes the necessary Electoral College states if his campaign is able to drive high turnout for people under 30.
Biden does likewise with the normal number of under-30 voters and a healthy showing of independents of all ages, plus strong support from black voters. (the Obama coalition, basically)
So, they both could win, but with different electorates. The problem for Bernie to solve is that in the primary so far, he’s not driving that necessary high turnout. In SC yesterday, there were a lot of new voters, but they went to Biden by a 7 pt margin.
The worst case scenario right now would be that Bernie wins CA big without a big new-voter factor, which would put him into a giant delegate lead … then become the nominee and collapse because his enthusiastic voter base is too small.
They don’t seem able to understand that a lot of people really don’t like the guy, or what it will take to get millions of semi-interested people registered and to the polls.
satby
That’s my Mayor Pete! Proud of him.
geg6
Thank you, Pete. Class act. I wasn’t a big fan but mucho respect tonight. He’s headed for big things with a few years under his belt.
John Revolta
@mad citizen: Illinois takes all the credit, but Abe Lincoln was born and raised in Indiana; didn’t move to Illinois until he was 21.
Don K
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Michigan votes 3/10, and Bloomberg has been all over here lately. I even saw a couple of Buttigieg ads in the last few days. Other than that, nothing.
I watched Pete’s speech tonight, and the peroration seemed like an audition for a starring role at the convention. Not a knock – it was a good speech, and a great explanation of why we’re Democrats. I can relate to the evocation of a boy who wonders whether there’s a place for him in the world – that boy was me – and i loved the obvious affection between Pete and Chasten.
Sab
@J R in WV: Our Founders thought 35 was a good floor age for President. Buttigieg is a few year older, and every bit as experienced as our first presidents. College, grad school, military, mayor.
Sab
@John Revolta: Abe Lincoln was born and raised in Kentucky.
Bill Arnold
@Elizabelle:
Have people seen the Cake Knife video?
The Pie Filter is gentle by comparison.
J R in WV
@geg6:
Yes, he did a great job this evening, and a pretty good job in his whole race. A decent, intelligent young guy with his head in a good space.
I can’t describe my opinion of Sanders, though. He is a despicable, hateful, distorted monster in words fit for company. But worse than that, actually.
satby
@Omnes Omnibus: Pete’s dad passed away last year not too long before he announced his exploratory committee, his mom still lives in South Bend and he’s an only child. He’s not likely to move soon, unless the next administration wants him in DC.
Ksmiami
@Sab: Alexander Hamilton was attaché to Washington at like age 19 so…
Sab
@Bill Arnold: ICK!!
geg6
@J R in WV:
With you on Bernie. Only a few clicks higher than Trump only. Broken glass and all that but Jesus fucking Christ, I would kill to avoid that.
Barb 2
@Kent:
Warren needs to stay in the race because of Bloomberg and B.S. Biden will need all the help he can get against those two.
She can take both on the debate stage.
Warren has said she will stay in the race because little girls need a role model. She started out as a teacher so she knows better than most.
Rand Careaga
I can sort of understand how Biden might appeal to that segment of the electorate yearning to go back to “normal.” Trouble is, that bridge has been dynamited.
Marcopolo
@Omnes Omnibus:
@debbie: While I hear what the two of you are saying about the importance of place in our lives, I would point out that it is pretty well documented that many folks (mostly young people fwiw) who have ambitions and want to carve out a meaningful career move from their red state birthplaces to other places with bigger horizons. Of course, this is one reason that places like MO and OH and IN have become increasingly red–so many of their best and brightest have moved on to large metro areas where there are more opportunities. I wouldn’t hold it against Pete if he followed the same trajectory though if we wind up with a D president in 2021 it would be most likely he’d wind up in the administration in some role.
I’m pretty sure he’d do okay as UN ambassador, for example.
satby
And predictably, the Bernitalldowners are doing a victory dance on Twitter and Facebook for “taking out” Pete. Including some hate language I’ve reported.
Sab
@Ksmiami: Alexander Hamilton was working as a business manager at age 16, mostly doing collections. He hated it.
Hamilton had a hard life, and was a prodigy. I am thinking more of guys like Adams, Jefferson and Washington.
But that’s my point. Hamilton was functionning as an adult at 16. The late bloomers were adults in their twenties. Buttigieg is almost 40. He is not an inexperienced adolescent.
John Revolta
@Sab: You are correct. They moved to IN when he was 16. My research dept. will be severely disciplined.
Sab
@John Revolta: I was severely penalized at age 10 for writing a school report about Kentucky that said he was born there. It’s very personal to me.
debbie
@satby:
Obamaesque.
e.a.f.
He was gracious, well spoken everything a politician ought to be. He would make a good Cabinet Minister, Secretary of whatever, head up an agency. The man is clearly capable. Its so nice to see there are adults on the American political scene.
The other candidates who dropped out earlier have not done much, that the media has reported on. It would be good if we could see what they are up to. All those who drop out need to continue to be active to ensure the Democrats win this election. Whether they stay to help organize voter registration -ensuring people get on the voters list, etc. Lets hope Mayor Pete and the others continue their supporters to continue to fight to keep the U.S.A.’s political trump free.
It was nice to see Mayor Pete run and he gave it a good show. It was a move forward in America.
gwangung
@Rand Careaga: Yeah, well a large portion of the population doesn’t believe in dynamite for some reason…
phdesmond
listening to the whole speech. bbl.
@Elizabelle: his generation of politicians, dem and repub, are showing respect for him.
@John Revolta:Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, the second child of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, in a one-room log cabin on Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky
phdesmond
@Bill Arnold: truly weird. thank you.
Quinerly
Good exit. Should have never been in in the first place. Certainly should have never gotten this far. Screwed up the field imo. Harris and Castro out before Mayor Pete? Give me a break. Ridiculous.
Jeffro
@Jeffro:
@Elizabelle: Biden and Warren will do well, Wilmer will underperform expectations
Mary G
Excellent speech. He will be a fantastic surrogate campaigning for the eventual nominee.
Elizabelle
@Jeffro: I hope so. That would please me. Make it happen, Virginia. Counting on you!
Omnes Omnibus
@Quinerly: Please provide a list of people who may run for president without being “ridiculous.” It will help a lot.
His presence didn’t drive out Harris or Castro. A lot of people found him appealing as a candidate, and, from what I have seen here at Balloon Juice, his example inspired quite a few LGBTQ kids and adults. That doesn’t sound like a bad thing to me.
Morzer
@J R in WV: I would say that Buttigieg was probably the most talented politician in this race. I wasn’t greatly impressed by some of his positioning, but he’s got a real ability to connect with voters and speaks very effectively. Give him some more experience and he could well be a big star in the future.
Tom Q
@hitchhiker: I know CA has felt, many times in the past, that they’ve come too late in the voting to matter much. But it feels like, this time, they moved it TOO early. Given how many delegates are at stake, it ought to come at a point where the field is whittled down enough that it’s impossible to get to the situation many fear this week: that, because so many candidates are dividing the pie, Sanders could get his standard 30-ish percent and reap a pile of delegates way out of proportion to that accomplishment.
I’m hoping that a Biden SC-driven surge will negate that, but the mere possibility that the race could be so skewed like that — Sanders getting to an uncatchable position based not on achievement but on pure logistics — suggests to me CA should at the very least come a few weeks later in the calendar.
Think of it as Goldilocks: in 2106 it was too late, now it’s too early. Find the Mama Bear spot where it’s just right.
But too late for this year. I’ll be sweating until the final CA count is in.
Morzer
@hitchhiker: Worth remembering that politicians who rely on the youth vote turning out in unusually high numbers “this time around” tend to be politicians who … do not win.
Tom Q
@Morzer: I’d say Harris and Booker, and, on his best days, Beto had something of the same fire. It would have been interesting to see all of them and Pete as the primary contenders, but the two Old Men blocked out the view and made that impossible.
Buttigieg got a little help from the press, at least early on, but he definitely endured because he’s got serious political talent (enough to obscure the fact his resume makes 2008 Obama’s look weighty). If this weren’t such an existentially important election, he might have even gone all the way to the nomination. But he seemed too much a gamble with all that’s at stake.
Tom Q
@Morzer: It reminds me of something John Podesta said during the Clinton administration: If someone has a plan that relies on Republican moderates sticking together, I say, bring me another plan.
Younger folk did vote in bigger numbers than usual in the 2018 midterms, but even with the improvement didn’t match older voters. Relying on them is a recipe for disappointment.
Morzer
@Tom Q: I’ll give you Beto in terms of political talent, although I think he would have done much better to stay and fight in Texas, but Harris never struck me as making much of a case for herself. Similarly, it’s entirely possible that Booker had something to say for himself, but I have no more idea now what it might have been than I had six months ago. Yes, that’s partly a consequence of having too many candidates on the stage, but at the same time none of those candidates seemed to have any idea of how to claim the spotlight. Mayor Pete found a way, which is why I would rank him above the rest.
Morzer
@Tom Q: I think we could now simply say that any plan that relies on the existence of Republican moderates is doomed to fail.
Lyrebird
This!! and:
Some of the more religious folks in my family became Mayor Pete fans because they are tired of the right wing & Falwell Jr types saying they own faith.
I was not a fan of some of his policy takes where he was going in that Republican-lite direction, but his overall core convictions have impressed me, and I am so glad he was in the race.
trollhattan
@Tom Q:
I’m good with the change in hopes it cements the nomination well before the convention so that every bit of energy can pivot towards booting Trump as soon as possible.
Sab
@Quinerly: I think you are wrong on this. Castro came in with a much higher profile than Buttigieg, and went nowhere. That’s partly on immigration being a toxic third rail, and partly on Buttigieg being a much better candidate.
As well as he did, he had every right to be in the contest. And now he is bowing out at an appropriate time. I am so impressed about everything about him.
Tom Q
@trollhattan:The problem I see is, should Sanders get the nomination, it would require some accommodation from both his people and the party regulars. This would be difficult enough even if he were to win a sweeping mandate in the primaries. But if he were to do it by winning a disproportionate number of delegates from CA through a pure quirk of the calendar, it’d be disaster. Nightmare case: he gets 30% of the vote and five other candidates each get 14%. From what I understand, he’d in that circumstance get something in excess of 75% of the 300+ delegates — an unearned lead that’d be almost impossible to erase, even with mediocre performances the rest of the way. That’d amount to a hostile takeover of the party, and make the needed reconciliation close to impossible. In historical terms, it’s akin to what Goldwater and McGovern did, and we know how those races turned out. Reagan, by contrast, was regarded just as warily by the GOP establishment as Goldwater had been, but his fair-and-square victories in the primaries made the establishment get in line, however reluctantly.
As I said, I hope this doesn’t become an issue and I’m just worrying needlessly. But Sanders winning on points without winning hearts and minds is a potential fiasco.
feebog
Purely anecdotal, but I put up a post on Facebook about reluctantly switching from Warren to Biden (I held on to my absentee ballot) in California. I got an overwhelming response from folks who are doing the same. Note that most of my Facebook peeps are older reliable voters. Some for Warren, one for Steyer, one moving back from Bloomberg to Biden. Don’t know what to make of it, but California may surprise some folks Tuesday.
Ruckus
@J R in WV:
Same page here. I still work in a machine shop and I can’t see being president at not all that many years behind the old farts. People tell me I don’t look or act that old but I tell them I’m a senior, not necessarily an adult and that looks can be deceiving.
Ruckus
@Wag:
Check settings. You can turn off auto correct and have it just show you the mistakes. Better to correct them properly rather than have your words carried away in a van, strapped to a bed, with red lights and a siren.
janesays
@feebog: Biden’s absolutely not going to win California, but if he’s able to get over 15% statewide and prevent Bernie from treating it as a coronation ceremony, that would be huge. I’ll be thrilled to death if Biden can get 20-25%, even if Bernie beats him by 20 points or so. It will greatly minimize the damage. Would be huge if he could do that and pick up a few wins in states like Texas, North Carolina, and/or Virginia. Biden doesn’t have to have the biggest delegate gain on Tuesday night, he just needs to do well enough that whatever delegate gain Sanders has doesn’t give him a commanding lead. Ideally, the race will still be within 100 delegates by the end of the night. More than 100 isn’t necessarily disastrous, but it will make it all the harder to take Bernie out.
Ruckus
@Sab:
I’d bet that running the country then was a wee bit different than today.
Ruckus
@Sab:
People also started working as soon as they could because life was harder and much more physical than most people are today. If I was alive then and worked in the same field, I’d be a blacksmith, beating red hot steel into tools with a hammer on an anvil. Not using machine tools to make precision products. Most of the people on here would be farmers.
Ruckus
@e.a.f.:
Harris now is working with All on the Line. And is still a US Senator.
Mnemosyne
Turns out that my auto-correct finally learned how to spell Buttigieg! Yay!
I think he’s a talented politician who was just a little too young and unseasoned for this particular year. I look forward to seeing him remain a national figure and possibly run again in the future.
Mnemosyne
@satby:
I was saying on Facebook that I want him, Stacey Abrams, and Andrew Gillum to put their heads together and figure out how to crack the code to win statewide office in their red states. All three of them are very talented politicians who could figure that out if anyone can.
low-tech cyclist
I’m sure Pete realized which side his bread was buttered on here. Stepping out in order to clear the way for Biden will gain him favor with the Dem establishment, and the wine cave crew will approve as well since they surely realized his chances this time were almost nil. He’ll be only 46 in 2028, so he’s got no reason not to bide his time. Hopefully he will have decided who he is by then.
Jinchi
Vox has an explainer about how the delegate math works with the 15% rule, and illustrates how things change if 3rd and 4th place candidates get just slightly over or just slightly under the cutoff. In their example, Sanders wins 30% and Biden wins 20%. Sanders ends up with between 30% of the delegates if the 3rd and 4th place finishers make the cut and 60% of the delegates if they just miss it. (Note these numbers are close to the latest polling average for California).
Buttigieg dropping out could be a huge deal. Even if half of his voters decided to switch to Sanders, Sanders could end up with fewer delegates than he otherwise would have.
https://www.vox.com/2020/2/28/21153287/delegates-democratic-primary-2020-math