2020 Democrats: You might be surprised by Mayor Pete Buttigieg. He reminds me of Obama. [View all]

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https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/03/19/mayor-pete-buttigieg-young-calm-reminds-me-barack-obama-column/3205479002/?fbclid=IwAR2gnB9f07bOACfOAAnDo4kDK91zzykgSb_YVDPDKGSc_mly3qWb9w-7OkQ


2020 Democrats: You might be surprised by Mayor Pete Buttigieg. He reminds me of Obama.
Peter Funt, Opinion contributor Published 3:15 a.m. ET March 19, 2019
The young South Bend mayor is an unlikely commander in chief contender. But he's got a potentially appealing X factor: calmness and command of issues.


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Buttigieg might not have all the answers, but whatever is thrown at him by reporters or TV hosts or folks at a town hall, he handles so authoritatively, so logically, that you’d swear Donna Brazile had arranged to get him the questions in advance.

Is he too young? “We’re the generation that provided most of the troops for the conflicts after 9/11," Buttigieg said on CBS. "We’re the generation that’s going to be on the business end of climate change. And if nothing changes economically, we’ll be the first generation ever to make less than our parents. So I believe that no one has more at stake right now than younger people coming up.”

He added, on CNN: “I have more years of government experience under my belt than the president.”

Buttigieg's book is beautifully crafted. It might have benefited from some judicious pruning, but it's an engrossing autobiography — especially coming from an author with fewer than four decades of experiences to draw upon. He's so new at being in the public eye that he and his husband can't even agree on the pronunciation of their last name. (Boot-edge-edge or Buddha-judge are top choices.)

Buttigieg supports "bedrock Democratic values" and considers himself a progressive, while refusing to overreach with Medicare for All or the more unrealistic elements of the Green New Deal. He speaks of "economic fairness and racial inclusion (that) could resonate very well in the industrial Midwest, but not if they were being presented by messengers who looked down on working- and lower-middle-class Americans."

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Beyond policy, successful politicians nowadays need an X factor. Obama's was rousing oratory. Trump's was slick marketing honed on reality TV. Buttigieg has a certain calmness and command of the issues that is particularly comforting in these tumultuous times. How far that will ultimately take him — and whether his destiny is now or somewhere down the road — remains to be seen.

Even so, as you watch him on TV and read his book, ask yourself: When was the last time a politician's words resonated quite this way? If you have to go back to the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois, in February 2007 for the answer, then perhaps in 2020 Pete Buttigieg will be your guy.