One year ago today I woke up in a Washington DC hotel room and saw mentions of a candidate announcement from Pete Buttigieg. I thought it was cute, I knew about Pete from the DNC chair race as well as his coming out story made the Chicago LGBT media. I sure didn’t expect to amount to anything except perhaps the first openly LGBT candidate making one of the early debates.
That story was completely crowded out by the ongoing government shutdown.
Now, one year later, it is the most amazing American political story of the modern era. Pete came from absolutely nowhere to be a leading candidate for president. On January 23 2019, everyone knew who Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden were. Pete has set fundraising records and didn’t start with a massive donor list like the other candidates. Even Cory Booker and Kamala Harris had Senate campaign donor lists as well as coverage during the recent Kavanaugh hearings.
Here’s Pete’s announcement from a year ago:
Pete may not get the nomination but the past year has definitely been amazing. Donald Trump may not have had any political experience but he entered the race also with 100% name recognition.
Iowa is in less than two weeks and he’s got as good of a chance as winning as the rest of the big 4.
I like Pete okay, and I’ll happily support him if he wins the nomination (though he’s not my first pick), but “the most amazing American political story of the modern era” is just a wee-bit premature. He hasn’t won anything yet. If he ends up winning the nomination and the Presidency, then yes, he’ll be up there as one of “the most amazing American political stories of the modern era” (up there with Obama and, unfortunately, Trump). If he doesn’t win Iowa and drops out after Super Tues (and doesn’t get picked as Veep), then Pete will be a footnote in the story of 2020. We’ll see.
But no matter how he does in this election, Pete’s obviously a very talented young Democrat and has a very bright future in the party and in US politics. Assuming he doesn’t win this time, I hope he runs for Senator or Governor of Indiana, and then he’d be in prime position to run for Prez again later.
I’d expect that if he doesn’t get the nomination or a cabinet position in a Democratic administration, he might actually move out of state. Chasten can probably get a teaching position in a blue state and I don’t think Pete has a path ahead in bright red Indiana.
I think it is still an amazing story, 0% name recognition to where he is today.
It was a pretty remarkable rise. Three months after his announcement, he was polling at 7% and had moved into third place in the 538 polling average. Sadly for dale’s narrative, it’s now ten months later and he’s still at 7%. He’s been in fourth place since mid-May and is only a few tenths of a percent from falling into fifth behind Bloomberg. His support among minorities is basically zero.
It’s not impossible that he might win Iowa, and if he did it’s plausible that that would give him momentum and lead to more wins. So his chances of becoming President, despite his anemic national polling numbers, aren’t quite zero. But they certainly aren’t close to being as good as Biden’s, Sanders’ or even Warren’s.
OMG, he’s doubling down on this. He basically topped out nationally at 10% in early December and has been falling from that. He’s not even as impressive as Howard Dean at this point, right?
The campaign has put all their eggs into IA and NH there’s no doubt about it. It’s a smart strategy because I think only one of Pete or Warren survives the first 3 with a realistic path. As of now, it looks like Biden has a lock on SC.
The last DMR poll comes out Saturday, that’ll tell a lot.
And we win Iowa! Yes, I agree Iowa was a clusterfuck and it’s basically a tie with Sanders.
But, the title of the this thread is The Remarkable Rise of Pete Buttigieg. I think it is a fair statement to say that those who caucused on Monday all knew about Biden/Bernie/Warren on February 3 2019. No one knew about Pete. I don’t know if he will win this nomination or not, but this is one hell of a success story in American politics.
Bernie Sanders rise from anonymity in 2015 to becoming a meaningful challenger to Hillary Clinton in the primary was more inspirational. That was a true dark horse candidate. Sanders has empowered the democratic base and given voice to the voiceless. Obama’s rise was inspirational but I feel Sanders was moreso.
I would be happy to vote for Buttigieg for president, but he doesn’t seem to have a lot of substance other than being non-threatening and good at debate. He changes his opinions based on what he needs to say to win. When he was unkonwn he seemed to take the progressive side, but then he tried to become a moderate as a younger, smarter alternative to Biden and his agenda changed. Granted, being smart enough to read a room and change tactics isn’t a negative. But I don’t know how hard he would fight as president for his agenda.
Either way, Pete is talented and win or not he has a good future in politics ahead of him. However I agree with OP, he has no future in Indiana. He will never become governor or senator in this red state. He will have to try for a different office (probably a cabinet position if he loses the primary).
I mean, obviously I agree that Bernie is more inspirational, but as far as sudden rises, really, Buttigieg is more impressive. Bernie didn’t have great name recognition nationwide, but when a US Senator runs for President, voters and the media are going to take him at least somewhat seriously. Mayor of South Bend? Not so much.
I fully admit I’m anti-Sanders to the core but I don’t really think he was unknown. He’s been in congress since 1990 and that election certainly made news as a socialist got elected. With the rise of social media, especially YouTube and Facebook, there were plenty of Bernie speeches on the senate floor out there.
Bernie was never a John McCain or a Bob Dole with 100% name recognition. But, I think among those who vote in Democratic primaries, he wasn’t exactly unknown.
A lot of senators and a lot of mayors have run and gotten nowhere though.
Buttigieg, even if he wins, will not help build a grassroots political movement and give voice to people who have felt ignored by their own party for years.
Either way, Either one of them would make a good president.
Wow, we actually agree on something!! And I’d say the same thing if the mayor of Burlington, VT had just won (or tied) in the Iowa caucuses. If Pete was one of the senators from Indiana, him winning Iowa might be a surprise but not one of the greatest rises in modern American politics.
As great as Obama was, everyone knew that 2004 keynote speech and he was a senator from Illinois. Had he been the mayor of Champaign, Illinois, it would have been a different story.
It seems to me a lot of the same things that are getting sad about mayor Pete now were said about Obama in 2007. I’m not saying he’s an Obama or anything but he seems like the one that would be the best next door neighbor.
Buttegieg did well in the town hall yesterday. Don’t think he put a foot wrong. He rarely does. I would be very happy to see him win the nomination and I think he would be far more effective as a contrast to Trump than Bernie or Joe.
That said, Bernie did exceptionally well, too. It’s hard not to like the guy.
I’m less than excited about Mayor Pete because McKinsey.
Mayors aren’t elected U.S. President without a few other political posts on top. Andrew Johnson. Grover Cleveland. Calvin Coolidge. Those are the lot. Pete’s best shot at the hotseat is to make Veep first.
People with no government experience at all don’t usually become President. Secular loudmouth womanizers from New York City don’t usually carry the Bible Belt. Things are possible now that weren’t possible before, for better or worse.