NYT: The Case for Pete Buttigieg

[brooklynite]

In different circles at different points over the past year, it has been fashionable to hate Pete Buttigieg: He’s too clearly full of himself. He’s too far ahead of himself. What business does the 38-year-old former mayor of a relatively small city have running for president? What real claim to the job?

How about this: He has drawn closer to it than prominent senators who came out of the gate with much more heat on them and were gone even before Iowans caucused. He outpaced and outlasted seasoned governors whose popularity across a broad section of the political spectrum was supposed to be electoral magic. Before hitting a snag in Nevada, he had more delegates from Iowa and New Hampshire than any of his rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, including Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden, who began building their political bases and growing their political careers before Buttigieg was born. His surname is a nearly impenetrable thicket of consonants (BOOT-edge-edge), and yet tens of millions of Americans can now pronounce it just fine.

You cannot chalk that up to novelty. You cannot call it a fluke. It’s a powerful testament to his knack for fashioning a message that resonates with Americans, delivering it clearly, avoiding unnecessary trouble and mobilizing support. Those talents are precisely the ones that the person sitting at the Resolute Desk needs most. Buttigieg’s campaign is his credential, and it’s a compelling one.

Undertaking a bid for the White House at his age indeed suggests hubris. But getting this far reflects a phenomenal work ethic, a stubborn optimism, extraordinary intelligence and preternatural poise. Those traits, too, are ideal for a president, and none of his rivals possess them in greater measure.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/opinion/pete-buttigieg-2020.html

[Joinfortmill]

1. Pete rocks it, but he won't beat Trump. We need Biden....

to heal the country, to restore our relationships with our Allies, and to have Obama support him in the campaign, which will drive Trump insane (literally), and remind the American people of a time, not so long ago, when America was great, indeed. Pete will be great in 2024.