Democratic Primaries
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PoliticoSooooo, he said, drawing out the syllable and the suspense, theyre going to have to get used to it.
Those 10 words, tough, almost defiant, elicited a response unlike anything else I witnessed trailing the ascendant Buttigieg on a pair of boisterous recent campaign swings. The sound started with a release of anxious laughter, followed by a hitch of surprise, before giving way to clapping and whistling and shouts and cheers that got only louder as what he had said sank in. It took nearly 30 seconds for the noise to subside.
Unspoken in his answermaybe unintended but nevertheless truewas that he wasnt only talking about, or even to, bigoted heads of state in distant, backward lands. He just as easily could have been speaking about his fellow Americans. For months now, Buttigiegs utterly unprecedented campaign has offered a practically explicit challenge to voters: Can they accept the totality of who he isthe pragmatic, two-term mayor of a midsize Midwestern city, the earnest nerd with a facility for language and degrees from Harvard and Oxford, the Navy Reserve lieutenant who did a seven-month stint in Afghanistan and also the 37-year-old husband of a man who teaches Montessori middle school and with whom he hopes to parent children?
Up till now, Buttigiegs youth and sexual orientation largely have been calling cards in the Democratic primary, distinguishing him in a field whose frontrunners are in their 70s and whose back-of-the-packers are too numerous for most people to keep track of. Given his comparatively low profile not long ago, Buttigieg has raised astonishing amounts of money, from donors of all kinds but from wealthy gay supporters, too, eager to back a figure who could, they believe, crack or outright shatter the glass closet. As his poll numbers have climbed, particularly in the crucial early states of Iowa and New Hampshire, he has joined the foremost quartet of 2020 Democrats. And with that rise has come a new, more pointed question, raised by voters and political consultants alike, and rooted in electoral history: Will the one thing that makes Buttigieg totally new in the annals of presidential politics also prevent him from becoming his partys nominee?
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
madaboutharry
(40,190 posts)And he is brave in many ways.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
you bet. As they say (or as someone said):"Fortune favors the brave."
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,525 posts)He is also very smart.
He wants to be useful. And he has a very unifying vision, one that he believes will help heal the country of the terrible divisions that were sown by the orange blob.
And those are just the beginning.
When he answers a question, and then goes on to enlarge his answer, I feel as though he's opened a door and we see inside, where so much more wisdom and knowledge reside.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Thanks
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Skittles
(153,113 posts)it sounds juvenile
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
TwilightZone
(25,428 posts)He seems to use it quite frequently on a personal basis, including in his e-mail address at the mayor's office in South Bend.
I disagree that it's juvenile. I see nothing wrong with it in the least.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Skittles
(153,113 posts)it's NOT that hard
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
brooklynite
(94,352 posts)He seems okay with the nomenclature.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
patricia92243
(12,592 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)I doubt that a President or Prime Minister of a first world country has to concern himself or herself with what strongmen in some chaotic assed little countries think. My guess is the biggies like China and India will conduct business as usual with the USA.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
The Valley Below
(1,701 posts)Those brown shoes with blue suits/slacks.
Gack!
Other than that, he's swell.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden