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| "Mayor Pete" |
Buttigieg has his performance dialed in.
I had seen the performance before. That's how these events work.
"Mayor Pete," as his campaign calls him, was in Oakaloosa, Iowa, the county seat of Marion County, about thirty miles from Des Moines. He is doing what candidates do: prove they are getting out into the state, not just showing up in Des Moines. About 300 people squeezed in to see him, most of them getting there early.
The crowd is all white, to my observation. This is Iowa.
There were eight TV cameras and a dozen or so media photographers.
Pete Buttigieg did the Pete Buttigieg show. I have seen it three times now, and it is pretty much exactly what people who have seen Buttigieg on TV have come to know from interviews. He spoke for 20 minutes, answered questions for 30 minutes, then greeted people, shook hands, did photos, then got whisked away by staff. It is what happens at these events.
The fact that he said what I heard him say in New Hampshire, in Oregon, and now in Iowa is not a surprise or a knock. Candidates hone their schtick, get their phrases right, get the tone they want. The questions from various audiences are predictable. The audiences change; the performance does not.
Buttigieg projects emotional maturity. He doesn't shout. He talks. He is calm. He seems reasonable. He seems earnest.
He made two references to Trump's bone spur contrivance for avoiding Vietnam service, but he didn't talk much about Trump.
He said he wanted "Medicare for people who want it" as contrasted with "Medicare for All."
He said that the political right had claimed faith and patriotism, but that people on the left should reclaim both. His faith guides his approach to policy, and he quoted from Matthew 25 about welcoming the visitor and caring for the sick.
Culture war. Pete Buttigieg's very existence engages the culture war. After all, he is gay, married to a man, and is pro choice. That settles that.
But, oddly, his language and manner seem the precise opposite of a culture warrior. He appears comfortable with "midwest values" and the sensibilities of people of small town, white, Christian Americans in flyover country. He is woke, but doesn't scold. After all, faith guides policy. He is married. He has a home and debts. He's a regular guy.
He stands up against Trump less as an alternative combatant than as an asymmetric one, in which Trump's culture war trolling behavior is irrelevant and mis-directed. Buttigieg commented on that: Trump, he said, doesn't quite know how to attack him. The Alfred E. Neuman gibe didn't work, possibly because Buttigieg parried it with the comment that he didn't get the reference, but likely more because Buttigieg seems earnest and competent, not immature and unserious. Quite the opposite.
Trump is the one who seems adolescent; Buttigieg seems grown up.Trump plays the role of bully on the side of white Christians who feel marginalized, thus earning the support of white Evangelicals. Buttigieg is a white Christian who doesn't act resentful; indeed, he acts grateful, referent, and patriotic.
It confuses and complicates the culture war.
Eagle Scout. Buttigieg looks younger than his years. He has a kind of Eagle Scout quality to him. If Trump were to name him ""Little Eagle Scout", the jibe would fit and perhaps stick. Scouts are young, just starting out in life. It might diminish Buttigieg and work as an insult. The problem, of course, is that parents are proud of Eagle Scout children.
Readers interested in the policy content of Buttigieg have ample places to view it, including previous posts on this blog. His views aren't surprising. He is in the moderate lane on a progressive scale, to the right of Sanders and Warren. He wants progress, not disruptive change. He has raised money from prosperous people in fundraisers where people max out with contributions of $2,800. I consider his policy views to be similar to those of Cory Booker and Amy Klobuchar, the moderate liberals.
So, instead, this blog will point readers to the after-speech rope line part of the Buttigieg performance.
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| Click: Buttigieg meets voters |
Buttigieg seems genuinely good at the meet and greet element of the task of retail politics. Look at his face as he works the crowd. Leaning in. Affirming people. Crinkles at the eye when he greets them.
[Note: I am in Iowa and so are multiple candidates. I expect to report on events by:
Joe Biden
Bernie Sanders
Seth Moulton
Joe Sestak
Elizabeth Warren
Marianne Williamson
Michael Bennet
Amy Klobuchar
Steve Bullock
Julian Castro]
Bernie Sanders
Seth Moulton
Joe Sestak
Elizabeth Warren
Marianne Williamson
Michael Bennet
Amy Klobuchar
Steve Bullock
Julian Castro]
2 comments:
Pete is one I will NOT get behind.
Women were good soldiers, voted for Obama to be the first black president before we had achieved our first woman president. There were PLENTY of hurt feelings in 2008.
Now Pete wants to be the first gay president, supported by buckets of rainbow cash and volunteers. Once again, before we've achieved our first woman president.
No, just no. Take his young snot nose to the back of the line.
You're Eating Where in Des Moines?
You basically describe Mayor Pete as an above average organic pasta joint, albeit al dente in an organic tomato sauce served up in a dignified storefront bistro with rainbow wall art. To a narrow local customer base wary of all the establishment eateries it sounds great. I get it. But to the rest of us it sounds way too ho-hum. Dude, we're in town for some action, something real special like Liz's Pow-Wow Prairie Boston Fusion with its big bold menu and head spinning new dishes with clever names rolled out like every week! Or Bernie's Politburo with its huge steaming bowls of Poor Man's Borscht for a buck ninety-nine, big plate of Piroshky-for-All, and those awesome Black Sea Sturgeon Tacos! Or even Uncle Joe's Famous Delaware Steakhouse that’s been there forever for good reason, and where everybody’s raving about its 45th anniversary cocktail playfully named the Joe’s Amber Alert. Sure Peter, if you're in town for a fourth night, then maybe do Kamala's on Main for its Tandoori Grits, Daddy’s Jerk Chicken, and her signature Willie Brown's Dirty Thing (head out of the gutter please, it’s gin martini with brine-filled kalamata olives stuffed with goat cheese). But Mayor Pete's, seriously? Yeah, true it’s in an interesting gentrifying neighborhood not in the strip malls like all those other wannabe places too numerous to name and that, thank god, are already folding, but still, Mayor Pete’s? Meh.
Anyway, I appreciate your reviews and look forward to more. Good grub that’s not trite or nowhere as good as the menu makes it sound, that’s in short supply.
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