There is clearly no strategy for dealing with the trade war—a trade war this president started—in a way that will actually lead to results for American farmers or American consumers. pic.twitter.com/qSW2jdXguB
— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) August 18, 2019
Whether or not those ideas take him to the Oval Office in 2020, all indications are that Buttigieg will be a positive influence in the Democratic party, and in our national politics, for a long time to come. He’s certainly the best-placed top-tier ‘Heartland’ candidate at the moment, which — given that the front-runners are universally ‘coastal elitists’ — gives him a strong point of leverage…
Pete Buttigieg once said that “a mayor can’t do much when it comes to immigration,” but he’s found creative ways to bring immigrants into South Bend’s fold. Now, he wants his policies to go nationwide. My latest: https://t.co/Xh8MmeM2F3
— Scott Bixby (@scottbix) August 14, 2019
@PeteButtigieg has a very smart plan to revive declining and depleted cities with immigration. Empty lots, abandoned property, and shuttered shops do real damage, as @EpiProfCharlie and I have shown. This would help. https://t.co/URtn6HtidF via @voxdotcom
— Eric Klinenberg (@EricKlinenberg) August 15, 2019
My latest on @PeteButtigieg at Iowa State Fair: He supports amending U.S. Constitution to overturn Citizens United. "Corporations do not have the same political souls as human beings like you and me," he says from @DMRegister Political Soapbox. https://t.co/qIIDCFK9LS #iacaucus
— Barbara Rodriguez (@bcrodriguez) August 13, 2019
.?@PeteButtigieg? is on the ?@DMRegister? Soapbox. People voted in 2016 to burn the house down, he says. Now the house is on fire and we’ve got to decide what to do next. pic.twitter.com/KFDz5onBuJ
— Brianne Pfannenstiel (@brianneDMR) August 13, 2019
He seems like he’s having more fun, too. https://t.co/0Zmn6fdV5e
— Brianne Pfannenstiel (@brianneDMR) August 13, 2019
NEW: Ahead of Iowa visit, @PeteButtigieg rolls out policy aimed at helping rural America, in part through apprenticeships, high-speed internet and addressing climate change. “Rural America should be growing,” Buttigieg tells me in interview. https://t.co/3opcDX7G0x #iacaucus
— Barbara Rodriguez (@bcrodriguez) August 13, 2019
Buttigieg received a standing ovation at the #WingDing pic.twitter.com/udIeyvKvXJ
— Emma Kinery (@EmmaKinery) August 10, 2019
BIG response for @PeteButtigieg from this Iowa Wing Ding crowd. He continues his campaign's theme of generational change. "If we want to win, we can’t look like we’re the party of back to normal. What we have isn’t working. But 'normal' wasn’t working either," he says.
— Brianne Pfannenstiel (@brianneDMR) August 10, 2019
When Pete Buttigieg walked into the military recruiting office in his hometown, the recent Harvard graduate said his field of study might come in handy: Arabic. The recruiter duly wrote down the kid's minor: "Aerobics." The latest in our Pursuit series. https://t.co/CGNUXbe0k4
— Marc Fisher (@mffisher) July 29, 2019
If he does get the nomination — even as VP, which IMO is his best bet right now –this clip will be in the convention video:
“I shook Robert Kennedy’s hand in 1968,” a woman tells Pete Buttigieg. “So you’re good luck?” he asks. “Not really— he was shot a month later,” she tells him. pic.twitter.com/RiW0fw1uwB
— DJ Judd (@DJJudd) August 13, 2019
satby
Harris / Buttigieg!
zhena gogolia
Thanks, Anne Laurie!
Belafon
Unlike the crapfest that was GOP 2016, we have a number of good candidates to choose from, and a number of quality pairs that could be put together.
debbie
I’m not understanding the lack of love; I haven’t heard him say anything that would lead me to think he’s a lightweight and incapable of being President.
zhena gogolia
@Belafon:
Except for Sanders, Gabbard, and Williamson, I’d be happy for any of them to become president in 2020. I include Delaney, Bullock, Hickenlooper in that.
zhena gogolia
@zhena gogolia:
Well, I guess Hickenlooper has dropped out. But he’s a better man than DJT by many orders of magnitude.
OzarkHillbilly
“Can I introduce you to the president? You really need to meet him.”
dmsilev
@zhena gogolia: If it came down to it, I could live with Sanders. I’m sure as Hell not voting for him in the primary, but if he happens to come out on top.., Williamson and Gabbard are the only two who I think have a chance of being as bad as Trump. Thankfully, neither is very likely to get the nomination.
satby
@Belafon: yes, we do.
@debbie: he’s definitely not a lightweight. Young, yes; but that’s a condition that corrects with time for all of us.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@satby:
If we’re lucky(or is that unlucky).
Ruckus
@satby:
As I’ve stated here before, I think, in echoing you, Harris is my first choice. I’m not as concerned with VP but Pete looks like he could be a valuable pick. Well spoken, vet, well educated, good ideas. I like Beto as well if for no other reason than his WTF moment on camera with a press free for all. Pete probably would have a better draw in the middle flat lands than Beto.
I also am coming around to Warren but still think her greatest strength is in the senate. She’s smart, well spoken, fired up/ambitious in a good way and seems like politics agrees with her. There are other good candidates running but they just don’t quite measure up to those four.
The bottom line? We have a surplus of riches in our top candidates. We have some second level folks who in a normal time could possibly get traction but realistically, this go round, don’t have a chance other than possibly VP.
Baud
@satby:
Unless you’re Benjamin Buttons.
Baud
@Ruckus:
And then there’s Baud!
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
Glanced at the local paper today and saw a story about Tim Ryan (my idiot rep) whining about the debate process because he’s not going to be in the next debate. It’s “horse [bleep]”. According to him, the entire process for eliminating candidates is intended to get rid of “moderates” like him. He apparently thinks that it’s ridiculous that candidates should be being eliminated in August, using Bill Clinton as an example.
He’s a moron and he’ll be a back-bencher mediocrity for the rest of his life
Ruckus
@Ruckus:
Here’s a link to a tweet of a reply to reporter DJJudd of CNN from Mayor Pete.
It’s worth reading.
Baud
@Ruckus:
He knew the rules.
Kent
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Right….elimating the moderates? Which of course, explains why Biden is leading the pack. Ryan’s problem is that there are only so many lanes for boring white male moderates and Biden has already taken up most of them. And whatever Biden doesn’t pick up, Klobochar is there to pick up the remains.
Baud
@Kent:
Klobochar identifies as female.
Ruckus
@Baud:
Sorry didn’t have the time or energy to go there.
So I will now.
Baud has been a candidate for how long? How many votes has Baud gotten? (BTW it’s far more than me, just in case you were wondering) What is your platform – and if you say shoes, you are right out of here. What do you do currently for a living, have you ever won an election or held office? And not bar lush does not count just because you thought you saw me in a bar once upon a time.
Brachiator
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Having 10 people on stage is stupid. More time is spent explaining the rules and telling people they have used up time than in having any actual discussion.
Smaller groups were needed, even if you pushed lesser candidates to the internet or radio.
Brachiator
@Belafon:
Yep. Totally agree.
Omnes Omnibus
The difference in tone between this thread’s comments and the previous one’s is startling, Of course there are many more comments on the other one, but it is interesting that a positive take on a candidate who isn’t a shouty and hectoring person results in positive engagement.*
*Except for Ruckus’s borderline defamatory attacks on Baud.
Ruckus
@dmsilev:
To be honest I can’t see us being any better with BS than trump. Sure he may not be as evil but he doesn’t seem to be really any smarter, isn’t as young and other than mostly a bunch of lily white followers who couldn’t find the word logic in a dictionary let along understand it, who’s he got on his side? Less support than he supposedly had when he got beat by a woman in the primary. No real policy ideas than “It will all be great when I’m elected!” And isn’t that the same policy idea that trump used, he’s so great that everything will be daisies and gum drops with him in the WH. How well did that work out? We have to defeat trump and BS if we want any improvement it our country.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
Those were borderline?
Am I going to have to up my game or what…….
Ohio Mom
I like the subtle digs Mayor Pete gets in while talking to (I think that’s) Jake Tapper (no, I don’t watch TV): “a fool’s errand” and Trump doesn’t think about “rural areas, they are just the scenery he sees while helicoptering to his golf course.”
He is a pleasure to listen to.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ruckus: I would say that Bernie has it in him to rise to the level of a mediocre president. Trump has no such potential.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ruckus: Truth is a defense.
dmsilev
@Omnes Omnibus: Basically this. There’d be a lot of blundering around, but at least some of his advisers and Secretaries would be decent people, just given the pool he’d be drawing from.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
It is possible that at one time he had that potential.
I don’t see it at all now, which is even less than the week I thought he might have it in him last time, if push came to shove.
I don’t disagree that if our choices are BS or trump, BS would be very, very marginally better. But a lot of that would be who would he bring with him and what more would they know than any of the assholes that trump has brought in? He is after all, no matter what he says, a racist. Maybe he’d never put on a pointed white cone and burn a cross in someone’s yard but he is of the old, my kind is best concept. And that’s racism. I know I see a lot of this in my fellow olds. Set in their ways, used to things being a certain way, the only change they are looking for is in their diapers – pardon me – accident prevention undergarments.
Brachiator
@Ruckus:
Someone should ask Bernie if he really believes that “Establishment Democrats” are all corrupt. This is a big theme among his supporters. They seem to have this crazy idea that the grass roots would rule and Congress would rubber stamp it’s decisions and pass them along to the president. You would not really need a speaker of the House or any other Congressional groups.
Bernie is a fraud whose only selling point is that he is not Trump.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
Are you saying you agree with me?
Are we breaking some new ground or what?
Omnes Omnibus
@Ruckus: Well, I do think it is likely that the closest thing Baud has to a platform is shoes.
Dan B
Fantastic article in Salon by Paul Rosenberg about Rachel Bitecofer, the researcher who was almost perfect in her prediction of the blue wave in 2018. She believes the Dems will make big mistakes by trying to win over GOP voters with blue dog candidates.
No link but its August 17th, 2019 article.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
I think he may not have believed that at one point in his “career.”
But I think he does now. He acted that way when HRC beat the pants off him and went with it right up to the election. Sure he once in a while tried to make nice but overall he stayed true to form. I expect no different from him this time. He will be 78 in 3 weeks, he would be 79 when he takes office. Now some individuals are still mentally fantastic at that age, but he’s not fantastic now. It is not going to get better. Take this for gospel, from me and probably most people with over 7 decades under their belts.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Kent:
Right? I guess Biden is some wild-eyed revolutionary by Ryan’s stupid standard.
@Brachiator:
Pretty much. I’m pretty sure 20 people weren’t running for President with Bill Clinton in the early 90s primaries. Just whining by Tim Ryan. I had thought he had already suspended his campaign and basically admitted he was never going to win
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
You know I wrote that line with you in mind.
Miss Bianca
So, suddenly, all these CO Democratic candidates for Senate are filling up my inbox with urgent messages. I wonder if that means Hickenlooper really is planning to enter the Senate race. >: >
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Ruckus:
@Omnes Omnibus:
You fools! You’ve messed with the natural order!
satby
This is fun! My exchange daughter, Qunoot, is back in the US from Bahrain! She’s in San Antonio for the semester.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Mayor Pete is extremely good at answering difficult questions in an honest and compelling way. The other day I read an answer he gave on third trimester abortion and he was compassionate and perceptive and articulate. Just so good.
Ruckus
@Miss Bianca:
He doesn’t have much of a career if he doesn’t. Going from gov to dog catcher of a small county isn’t exactly advancement. He could always start another brewery, run for mayor again.
He’s not a bad guy but also not a major player, if he wants to go forward the senate is about the only upward movement open to him at his age and stature.
satby
@Dan B: which blue dog candidates are in the top tier of the Democratic field right now? None.
Omnes Omnibus
@debbie: Looking over this thread with that thought in mind, I have to say that most if not all of the commenters on this thread are white. A lot of the skepticism toward Buttigieg on this blog has come from POC. The fact that there is such a white/non-white divide in how people see him does give me pause.
Baud
@Ruckus:
Thank you for giving me a chance to answer the tough questions, Ruckus. The answer is yes.
Omnes Omnibus
@satby: I doubt that it is a concern at the presidential level.
Bex
Pete talks tech. youtu.be/ML50p4DBAQg
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Omnes Omnibus:
I think some of that has come from policing scandals in his city IIRC, as well as his appeals to rural voters; that he’s making excuses for rural racist whites and their decision to vote for Trump
Miss Bianca
@Ruckus: Well, I think he’s done an OK job as Denver mayor and CO governor, and I feel pretty sure he’d beat Gardner handily, which is all I care about right now. I just wish we didn’t have these absurd term limits on our state-level offices, but that’s a story for another time.
satby
@Omnes Omnibus: your perception is true as far as most of us commenting here. My neighbors and friends in S.B. (who are predominantly black and Mexican), and the head of the NAACP in South Bend back him. Anecdata, to be sure.
satby
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: he never made excuses for racism. He has said he believed that more than racism motivated some voters for Trump. Tax cuts, for example.
And a lot of the reporting on the police issues, which continue to be litigated, was fanned by trolls and bros. Buttigieg has made very strong statements against racism and Trump.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
This is true. But if you listen to his answers, and can take him for his word, then why wouldn’t you agree with him, no matter your skin color? OTOH I firmly believe that if I was black I wouldn’t trust any white person until they had proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that they had earned that trust. And if you look at Harris, she is getting some pushback from POC because she was a major prosecutor, a position not often well respected by POC. Often for good reason.
I have no idea how this will work out but if I were a betting man I’d go with EW against JB in the primary with EW wiping the floor with him. As I’ve said I like Harris just a bit better than EW. But they are close in my mind.
Ruckus
@Baud:
I would have thought that you’d go with “No comment.”
Yes is far bolder.
Baud
@Ruckus:
I was going to go with “I can’t comment about an ongoing investigation” but understand the American people want straight talk.
satby
@Ruckus: Harris and Buttigieg continue to be relative unknowns compared to Biden’s known qualities as Obama’s VP.
Ruckus
@Baud:
LOL
Ok this is where I get off this bus.
Could have gone with “Did you mean the American people want straight bullshit?” But enough is enough.
Bus door wouldn’t open.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@satby:
I was just saying that might be the perception of Buttigieg by POC.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ruckus:
The bold part is where I think that the skeptics on this blog have their concerns. I am not going to put words into their mouths though; if they stop by, they are more than capable of speaking for themselves. It was just an observation based on anecdata from this blog.
MomSense
Ugh. Hard pass.
satby
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: they can speak for themselves.
Ruckus
@satby:
I understand but really what did Joe Biden do as VP? I can’t really recall anything – wasn’t there something in the run up to the ACA vote where President Obama had to step in and fix something? Minor snafu but still that seems to be the only thing I remember, other than he actually was VP. What policies did he push, what did he do to bring around the senate vote?
I am not saying he’s a bad guy but really his record, other than being President Obama’s VP, really how good is it? My opinion is not all that good. He earned the title of senator of MBNA.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@satby:
True. I wasn’t meaning to put words in people’s mouths
satby
@Ruckus: he willingly and cheerfully supported his boss, a black man younger and less experienced than him when they were elected. Loyalty counts for a lot.
satby
@MomSense: you remind me of a dear friend of mine: who would not, could not, absolutely refused to support Hillary Clinton in 2016 because of the decades of slander she had heard. No matter how I tried to get her to look at what Clinton said or did, she was a hard implacable nope.
In IL, so in the end it didn’t matter, but still.
MomSense
@satby:
I don’t think a mayor of a smallish city is qualified to be president.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@satby:
In all fairness, based on what I’ve read here, Buttigieg seems alright and I would have no problem voting for him if he were the nominee
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
I think it was and is a very valid question.
We are going to see things different than POC, because we can not have the experiences they have had or know of someone who has. I’m saying that if they can trust him, he will do well. If they don’t know then they will look elsewhere. I suspect that a lot of Biden’s support from POC is that President Obama picked him so he must be OK. My point was that I as a white person can see their point, I can not experience it, my perspective is just far different. I don’t expect them to take my word because why should they? I have no earned position, Biden does. Mayor Pete has some earned position, Biden has more. I don’t agree with that from my perspective but I can’t expect any POC to take my perspective for squat. Mayor Pete has to earn that, I think he might just be able to, if he gets exposure. He seems to have from local POC. And that goes for every candidate, they have to earn that position.
satby
@MomSense: it may be my mistake, but I assumed the
meant you haven’t bothered to read any of those aforementioned good ideas. Just thinking you’d find some of them appealing.
And though I really, really like the guy I’m aware he’s most likely to be a VP candidate or contender for a cabinet post. Which would also be excellent.
Ohio Mom
@satby: I know loyal Democrats who voted for Hillary because Trump but also believed all those decades of slander. It was a funny combination.
Ruckus
@satby:
Yes it does and in my last comment I sort of said the same thing. Using a lot more words…. It is important, loyalty. In my mind it isn’t enough though, he has a public record when he wasn’t being second fiddle and it isn’t all that great.
It can also be a detriment, use any trump toady for example. Their loyalty is their only asset and it’s not a good one.
satby
@Ohio Mom: yeah, she’s more of a Dem leaning independent. She just had a total block re: Hillary.
satby
@Ruckus: I don’t know any black folks backing Biden, so I can’t say. The top three in my neck of the woods in no particular order are Warren, Harris, Pete. Mix and match as needed.
Rikyrah has explained Biden’s appeal that way in past threads.
Ruckus
@MomSense:
I agree that he is probably too young. But he’s packed a lot of experience in a relative short time, he’s smart, he’s seemingly well liked by a lot of the citizens he works for and my major question about who can be president is how can anyone who has never held the job know? There is almost nothing like this job on the planet, we never really know if they are going to be good or shit. You can get a feel for possibly real good – President Obama, and obviously real bad – trump. But you never really know till they are in and either doing good or blowing it massively. I thought RFK would be better than his brother because of the way he carried himself and spoke. JFK was good, but I felt Bobby was better. But as in many cases we will never know.
I haven’t been a Mayor Pete fan for long but the more I see the more I like.
HRA
I was a preteen when I first got interested about politics. I remember the conversations my Dad had with relatives and guests about elections.
A mayor and governor are qualified to run as president as are former vice presidents. A mayor has to contend with the city council. A governor has to contend with the state senate. There are also other departments within their office they have to deal with.
Mayor Pete and Gov. Inslee plus any other governors left in the debate are qualified.
Ruckus
@satby:
In my last comment to you, you can see that I agree that loyalty is a big issue. Mainly because if you were someone who had been screwed over by people who told you one thing and did another, and to you, you’d be skeptical too. Biden did exactly as you said, he accepted his post and spoke highly of President Obama. If I had to worry, being a black man in the US right now, I think that would count for a lot more with me than it does, because of my skin. But I also know that loyalty is only one issue, and while it may have a different meaning to me than someone else, there are other more important issues. For me age is one. And Biden will be 78 when he takes office if he’s elected. That’s way too old. It’s the reverse of young years, when you learn and earn your place and it seems like it takes forever. As you get older you forget and stick with what you think you remember and the days go by so fast you wonder why we don’t spin off the face of the planet. Being president accelerates that like comparing a 737 to the X15. That’s 600mph to 4500mph, a slight difference.
satby
@Ruckus: age is a huge factor. Both Biden and (spit) Bernie show the negative effects of it: stuck in the past and defensive about it. Warren is only a bit younger in years but decades younger in thinking and apparently health and vigor. Warren is the only older candidate I feel would be up to the job. Bernie, not at all.
I’ve known (3) IT directors in their 40s who dropped dead from stress and cardiac issues, so having a capable, ready VP is important for all the candidates. Especially the older ones, but all of them. None of us really knows how long our ride will be.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@satby:
Did I say anything wrong? If I did, I apologize
Yutsano
@satby: I hate to break this to you but…they’re not gonna let an out queer become President. There will be swaths of this country who will be openly opposed to him to the point of denying him entry even as President. The religious right would lose their shit. I could see constant open calls for his death in churches to alleviate us from another anti-Christ in the White House. The religious right needs to spend a couple decades out of power before anything like that will happen.
Ruckus
@satby:
The second best day of my life was giving my 2 week notice to quit working professional sports. It felt like a 12 ton weight was lifted from my shoulders. The stress of working that hard for really nothing. That’s a killer. The best day was getting told by the ships clerk that the Pentagon had sent a radiogram telling the captain of the ship I’d been assigned to for maybe 5 weeks that I had to be honorably discharged no later than noon in 4 days. I have no idea why I got that discharge, I never asked for it. But I took it gladly. OK that’s an understatement. I ran around and screamed like a little girl, in amazement and joy. Losing either of my two small businesses was not as bad on the good and bad scale as those two days were on the good side. Neither was the earthquake that took my first business and came too close to a chance at taking my life as bad as those days were good.
Ruckus
@satby:
I’ve also told this here before. I once met a man at 95 yrs old who had more vitality than most 70 yr olds that I know, including the one in the mirror. He’s the exception and lived to 104. I saw him every year for those 9 yrs. He looked great for maybe 6 of those. The last 3 went by like he fell out of plane at 40,000 ft. Every minute he looked worse.
He really was one of the exceptions. He was born before my grand father who had a long life for someone born in 1890.
But the norm is a lot different than the exceptions. In the last 3 yrs 10 people I know passed away, only one was a year older than me, all the rest were younger.
GuyinKY
There’s a lot of painful truth about aging in this thread. I’m in my late 30s and can feel it stalking me. But I wanted to share this gorgeous essay by Roger Angell.
newyorker.com/magazine/2014/02/17/old-man-3
I honestly love reading a blog where most of the commenters are twice my age. There’s a reason many cultures look to elders for leadership.
Dr Ronnie James DO
@Ohio Mom: That’s not fair – rural people are also great backdrops for his rallies. Like those old books you can buy by the yard to line the “study” in your mansion.
It’s not getting much coverage, but his standing in communities once thought to be his strength – white working class, white rural, white elderly – is falling. After faking for Apprentice Man, They are finally seeing the real DJT.
satby
@Yutsano: I think it’s been pretty clear that I don’t see Mayor Pete overtaking the front runners, much as I like him and think he would be an excellent choice. I hope he gets a high profile position in the next Democratic administration though. He’s smart, talented, and a good decent guy. We need those in government.