Pete Buttigieg Dismisses 'Electability' of Older, White Male Candidate Versus Trump: ...

[DonViejo]

Pete Buttigieg Dismisses ‘Electability’ of Older, White Male Candidate Versus Trump: ‘Democrats Always Psych Ourselves Out’

By Reed Richardson June 28th, 2019, 11:58 pm

In a wide-ranging interview with CNN’s Don Lemon, Mayor Pete Buttigieg dismissed the idea that the most electable candidate to beat President Donald Trump in 2020 would be an older, white man, not unlike former Vice President Joe Biden.

“This worries me a bit. Democrats always psych ourselves out. We over-think, try to put ourselves in the heads of somebody else,” Buttigieg said, before offering a brief history lesson about the past 40 years of Democratic success and failure at the presidential level.

“The pattern shows that possibly the riskiest thing we can do is play it safe in that way. Think about this, my home state, Indiana. Indiana went blue once in the last 50 years. It wasn’t for Bill Clinton or John Kerry or Jimmy Carter. It was for [Barack] Obama. If we were sitting here in 2007 saying let’s find somebody so electable, so palatable, so easy for swing voters to get comfortable with that he can carry Indiana for Democrats. I’m not sure people would have said Obama. He was able to move people and inspire people. What we have in 2020 is a sense of great urgency. We know what we’re up against. Just how imperative it is for those of us horrified by the behavior of this administration. We’re not going to win by offering a return to normal.”

Buttigieg went on to caution Democrats not to try to mimic Trump’s nostalgic “Make America Great Again” campaign narrative by returning to the world before he became president.

“This idea we can turn back the clock,” he explained. “I feel like some Democrats for whom our answer to the Republicans who say they want to turn back the clock to the 1950s: ‘We want to turn back the clock, just not as far, to the early 2000s.’ That won’t work. We’re in the industrial Midwest, people and all races have been left behind by the so-called normal. That led to the Midwest, places like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, supporting the president we have now.”

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video
https://www.mediaite.com/election-2020/pete-buttigieg-dismisses-electability-of-older-white-male-candidate-versus-trump-democrats-always-psych-ourselves-out/

[leftofcool]

2. He is right

[KY_EnviroGuy]

3. Move America Forward Again.

per Mayor Pete and DU.........

[grantcart]

9. Great slogan

[MBS]

13. Agreed!! n/t

[Gore1FL]

4. "Electability" has always been a silly argument.

Electability gave us Dukakis and Kerry.

The Democrats win when someone's message wins the day after being testing in a primary. See Also: Carter, W.J. Clinton, and Obama.

[Igel]

7. Mostly that was primaries.

They were elected; others weren't. They, consequently, were electable.

It's not as though only one person was nominated in each primary; and it's not as though everybody who voted (D) had their crania opened and the DIP switch in their pre-frontal cortex set to "enable predefined parameters for externally determined electability." Esp. back then, when people didn't have their brain-stem wired to the Internet for remote control and convenient Russian hacking.

We're all petty pundits now, serving the faithful at their secular lares and penates and providing applied exegesis on the finer aspects of things, but it would be mistake to project that state of affairs back much more than a decade.

[DemocracyMouse]

5. Totally makes sense. Indiana broke out of its red state coma ONLY when an inspirational candidate...

came along: Obama. They didn't go for the "safe bets" like Bill Clinton, John Kerry or Carter.

Warren is that inspirational leader now. As it turns out, she comes along with reasonable plans for rebuilding America on every front: race issues, environmental justice, bank regulation, education. You couldn't ask for a better combo. She has heart and brains.

[Midwestern Democrat]

11. The financial crisis of 2008 killed McCain's campaign - Obama was likely going to win that race

even without that, but the financial crisis made it about as done a deal as the Great Depression made FDR's victory over Hoover in 1932. Without the financial crisis, Obama probably doesn't win by 7 points and win a state like Indiana - indeed, in 2012, the Obama campaign wrote off Indiana from the very start.

[Martin Eden]

20. Today we have a different kind of crisis, which is even worse in many ways

It is encouraging to think that the kind of voter backlash that brought us Barack Obama will go against Trump in 2010.

[KPN]

6. I agree.

[Perseus]

8. He is so smart, so clear in his thinking

I have to think that he would make a great President.

My ticket right now is: Bill de Blasio for President, and Pete Buttigieg for VP.

Can you imagine a debate between Buttigieg and Pence? That would be a beauty.

And I feel that Bill de Blasio has the presence, the eloquence, and the character to intimidate the buffoon, I feel the buffoon will crap in his pants to the sight of de Blasio.

[grantcart]

10. He will be President some day

[onetexan]

21. Pete may be smart but still wet behind the ears & a little too smug for my taste

He'll need to put in some time at the national level before he gets my vote. Even as mayor im not impressed by his track record.

[brush]

23. Agreed. He hasn't shown he can get support from AAs in his own town...

much less on the nation level. No Dem wins without AA support.

[onetexan]

24. Agree

[leftofcool]

26. And you know this how?

[brush]

28. The bungled black chief matter, the loss of 50% of...

POC officers from the police force, the 6 recently sworn in new officers are all white, the killing of an AA by an officer without his body cam on and the protests and ugly confrontation about votes (white chief goes unpunished btw).

Not hard to understand. And AAs across nation are watching.

[mtnsnake]

30. If anyone is too smug, it's Biden, not Buttigieg. Buttigieg is confident, not too smug.

[onetexan]

33. overly confident when you really haven't yet proven yourself can come across as too smug.

[onlyadream]

12. The dem mantra should be "END THE INSANITY"

And the only question I care about is “how will you beat Trump?”, everything else is just bickering and a waste of time, which could hurt us in the general.

[Firestorm49]

14. A very interesting take. For the most part, I concur.

[brush]

15. Risky tactic if you ask me. A white male writing off another?

The writing off might bleed over to him. Best to go after Biden on his unforced errors not his age.

[yardwork]

19. Pete didn't go after Joe's age. Read past the headline.

Pete's comments are right on target. We can't win by promising a return to normal. People want much more.

[brush]

22. Not directly but he did.

[yardwork]

25. I don't read it that way.

[crazytown]

16. 2008: Biden was on the ticket.

Just saying.

[yardwork]

18. This is not 2008.

[yardwork]

17. He's absolutely right. We must offer bold promises.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

27. But bold promises are useless if they can't be kept.

[yardwork]

29. I've changed my thinking on that.

Hillary lost partly because she was honest, and careful not to promise more than was possible. Millions of people chose a blatant liar instead. We can complain that they're unrealistic idiots, but they're still out there. They feel left behind. They ARE left behind. They are hungry for a candidate who makes big bold promises.

Warren actually understands economics. She combines bold promises with knowledge.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

31. But if you promise free college and free health care

and then can’t deliver (and there’s no guarantee those proposals would get through Congress) your credibility is shot, and then what?

[yardwork]

32. Apparently it's fine. You just say it's taking a long time but you're fighting.