Pierce: Pete Buttigieg Is Now the Darling of the MJ Don't-Run-With-Scissors Crowd

[BeyondGeography]

... It's become clear over the past few days that the big guns of privilege have begun to open up on the Warren campaign. It began with a series of stories quoting anonymous Wall Street types threatening to jump to the president* or sit out the election entirely if SPW is the nominee. (This should have surprised precisely nobody.) The next step was another series of stories in which anonymous Wall Street types began to threaten financial calamity if she were to get elected and reinstate the kind of financial regulatory regime that worked so well for, you know, 70 years.

Then she rolled out the mechanics of her Medicare For All plan, which were initially applauded, but that applause was quickly drowned out by the HowYaGonnaPayForIt? Hallelujah Chorus. (Democratic leaders are starting to talk about The Deficit again, never a good sign.) Her snipe about Biden's possibly running in "the wrong primary" probably wasn't a good move but, what the hell, if you're the Democratic frontrunner and using conservative talking points against your primary rival, then what SPW said was only what a lot of Democratic voters were thinking anyway.

The general state of the race over the past couple of weeks has evinced the inevitable power of the back-to-normal narrative. There is a substantial portion of the electorate that just wants a break. Biden is that candidate, although Buttigieg is making a strong pitch for being the voice of that desire as well. It's not showing up in any polls yet, but he's clearly becoming the darling of the Morning Joe don't-run-with-scissors crowd. Over the weekend in Iowa, he received considerable praise for comments that, on their own, are almost overpowering in their stunning banality.

“ The purpose of the presidency is not the glorification of the president, but the unification of the American people.

The purpose of the presidency is to see that the laws are faithfully executed, which includes obeying them yourself. Period. This is consultant-speak, West Wing pablum. And then there was this, on ABC on Sunday.

I think it [Medicare for All] could very well be the long-run destination, but I think there's got to be some humility in our policy here.

No, I don't know what "humility" has to do with anything, either. And, finally, there was this beauty, from a town hall in New Hampshire.

A new culture of belonging is the sort of thing that only the powers of the presidency can deliver. Not the legal powers; the symbolic, the cultural, the moral power of the office. Because the purpose of the presidency is not the glorification of the President, it is the unification and empowerment to the American people.

The presidency is meant to foster "a new culture of belonging"? And people say Marianne Williamson is the cosmic muffin of this campaign. But the people who follow such things, and who yearn for a return to the status quo of the days before Camp Runamuck, love this kind of thing, especially when dished out by a handsome young white man. If those NYT numbers get enough people a'skeered, then, Mayor Pete's "moment" may well be upon us. Double digits, here he comes!

More at https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a29685923/pete-buttigieg-back-to-normal-joe-biden-elizabeth-warren/

[Gidney N Cloyd]

1. My scissors must be dull this morning... What's MJ and SPW?

[BeyondGeography]

2. Morning Joe and some kind of an allusion to Warren

The only thing that makes sense to me on SPW is Senator Warren.

[CTyankee]

4. Special Person?

[hurl]

5. "Senator Professor Warren"

CP's nickname for her

[BeyondGeography]

10. Duh

Thanks, hurl.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

12. Thanks.

"Senator Professor Warren" seems like the kind of too-cute-by-half nickname you use once in an article for your personal jollies then go back to the style guide.

[BeyondGeography]

7. I'll take Biden over Pete in the moderate lane

I have even less of an idea what his priorities would be than Biden’s, no confidence in his desire to change the way Washington operates (putting him on par with Biden) and his learning curve in the viper’s den would be ridiculously steep.

[crazytown]

22. Ditto.

Pete has moved some distance from promising to close the book on Reaganism, and nothing can prepare an outsider for the nest of vipers that awaits in the U.S. Congress.

[ritapria]

13. Bernie has executve experience

He was a 2 term Mayor of Burlington, Vt ….Smaller than South Bend , Ind I recognize

[pangaia]

15. Mayor Pete-- I like, to tell the truth...

But-

What does young have to do with anything?
They are ALL highly intelligent.
Almost ALL are highly qualified.
Who cares about a military record?
And what is a 'patriotic' military record, anyway?
Not the only candidate with executive experience.
Pete doesn;t have the color problem... well,.. no... but....

[tishaLA]

20. Only candidate with executive experience?

I' do a bit of research into what the CA Attorney General does.

[Ninga]

6. I am sick of teevee personalities, columnists, opinion writers telling us what is best for us

DEMOCRATS.

They preach “but the moderate Republicans!”

Let the moderate Republicans get their own candidate.

The way it works, the Democrats will vote as Democrats, not moderate Republicans. Moderate Republicans voted for tRump the last time. I think they’ve lost the moral authority to make demands now. When they portray a law breaking, unethical candidate who is about to be impeached as preferable just because Warren is a “little too left” for their liking reveals that’ve already lost their moral compass.

[TheRealNorth]

8. My issue is not whether Warren or Buttigieg is the right candidate

But that some are letting Wall Street dictate who is "acceptable".

[Renew Deal]

9. The problem with Warren besides electability issues is that she would be a genuinely bad president

She cares. That's nice. But she is an ideologue. She has a mean streak. The comment about the "wrong primary" was ridiculous. She would be Jimmy Carter following Ford and Nixon. One term of calamity.

[LeftTurn3623]

16. The comment about the "wrong primary"

was right on the money - I was actually thinking the same thing - Look how Pete attacks Warren on the same topic - Pete does not use Republican talking points to attack Warren but he still can disagree and make points why all or nothing isnt the answer

[Renew Deal]

17. Biden being in the wrong primary is an extremist view.

[phleshdef]

19. Its not even remotely accurate, though I took it as a throw away comment anyway.

No one running in a GOP primary in this day and age would be trying to actually improve healthcare access. All of the top tier Democratic candidates have that goal.

[phleshdef]

18. If thats the extent of her mean streak, then its not really much of a mean streak.

Much worse things are said during primaries. And I say that as a Biden supporter.

[tishaLA]

21. That Politico story from about a month ago--

the one filled with recollections, many of them not favorable regarding Sen Warren--belies the assumption that she's an ideologue. In fact, some of the people with whom she disagrees/disagreed with most vehemently, like Tim Geithner, was surprised at how pragmatic she was when she was setting up CFPB.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. I really don't see what's wrong with "back to normal."

It will take years just to recover to where we were at the end of the Obama administration, which was "normal." The functions and norms of our "normal" government will have to be restored before progress on new programs can even be possible. We don't even have functioning agencies anymore; the State Department is feckless and mostly controlled by Rudy Giuliani; the EPA has been gutted and what's left of it does its best not to regulate polluters; the Interior Department is selling government land; DHS cares only about preventing immigration of any kind and is ignoring what it was created to do, which is counterintelligence intended to combat terrorism; the Department of Justice exists only to protect Trump; HUD, headed by the sleepy and completely unqualified Ben Carson, does what it can to prevent people from getting affordable housing instead of creating it; and so forth. "Normal" has to be restored before we can go forward.

[Green Line]

14. Back to normal sound really good right now, I'll take it.