The Political Case for Mayor Pete

[Shrek]

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/12/political-case-for-mayor-pete-buttigieg.html

Only one public polling organization, Marquette Law School, has measured general-election favorability ratings at the state level during this time frame. Marquette’s latest poll found that in Wisconsin, Buttigieg had an unfavorable rating roughly 20 to 25 points below the unfavorable ratings of Biden, Sanders, and Warren. Buttigieg was the only candidate whose net rating broke even. Biden was negative by 7 points. Sanders and Warren were negative by double digits.

Buttigieg seems to have hit a sweet spot in the middle of the electorate. Last week, a national Fox News poll asked voters which candidates were too liberal or too conservative on the issues. Most respondents said Sanders and Warren were too liberal. Only 35 percent said Buttigieg was too liberal, and 36 percent said Biden was too liberal. If you calculate a Goldilocks rating for each candidate—the percentage who said he was “about right,” minus the percentage who said he was too liberal or too conservative—Buttigieg was the only candidate who broke even among independents. Every other candidate, including Biden, was net negative.

(SNIP)

The worst thing you can say about Buttigieg, politically, is that he has yet to gain much support from black voters. But that’s a huge opportunity. He has a strong agenda to offer these voters and is working to build trust. In a general election against Trump, it would be a lot easier for Buttigieg to shore up his support from black voters than for Warren or Sanders to win back independents who have decided that those two candidates are too far left.

Buttigieg can win. He connects with independents, he’s strong in the key states, and as people get to know him, they tend to like him. They discover that he’s well prepared to lead the country—the whole country, not just a party or a movement—in addressing the challenges of the next four years. If he wins Iowa and New Hampshire, cynics and opportunists will scoff that he’s not electable. Don’t believe it.

[blm]

1. Warren had highest positives till certain camps targeted her with lies

and smears against her character, piling on for 3 months straight.

I think some blowback for that selfish and wrongheaded tactic is in the cards for a couple of the camps who chose that route.

[MBS]

2. This feels accurate to me.

Thanks for posting!

[crazytown]

3. I know what to expect of President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

I have little idea of how Pete would govern, only his pronouncements which have changed markedly over the course of the campaign. In April he said, "There (is) this sense that I'm going to blow up the system. And I think this is really important to understand, because we need to make sure we don't -- that strategically as a party that we don't come to be viewed as the defenders of a system that is letting people down. And we wouldn't be here if the economic and political system hadn't failed people."

Today he is talking finding common ground and forging unity with the architects of that failure, the GOP and their lackeys. What I do know is that a political neophyte stands little chance matching their cesspool of vipers. After four years in the Senate, Obama thought he knew what was coming - he did not, and Pete knows less again. Forgive me if I prefer Biden's business as usual, to Pete's vapor thin new world.

[Gothmog]

4. Mayor Pete is at 0% in this poll with African American voters

Link to tweet

[crazytown]

5. 0% is not a matter of popularity and policies,

it is rejection, which has moved beyond perceptions and preferences, to become a thing in itself.

[Gothmog]

6. Indiana African American Community leaders endorse Joe Biden

Link to tweet