Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Another one bites the dust: Mayor Pete out of race
The New York Times is reporting that Mayor Pete Buttigieg is ending his campaign for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. He barely won in Iowa, maybe. He came second to Senator Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire, then underperformed in Nevada and South Carolina, while Joe Biden suddenly became relevant again, winning convincingly, as he said he would, in South Carolina. Mayor Pete ended up following on the heels of billionaire businessman Tom Steyer, exiting after South Carolina. So what does this mean going forward?
Mayor Pete’s campaign Twitter account paints the picture. Instead of heading to Texas for planned rallies, Buttigieg went back to his home town and gave a speech to his campaign supporters Sunday evening at 8:30 pm, Eastern Time.
It was a well crafted speech, showing loyalty to his party while painting himself as the real leader of leftist change. He claimed that he and his supporters made history in Iowa. That could only be true if his primary identity was as a homosexual man, introduced in this final campaign appearance by the man who would have become First Gentleman, and embracing again as he ended his campaign suspension speech. He tied the politics of sexual identity to the unique history of blacks in America, invoking Selma.
On the other hand, he rousingly delivered a call for the political agenda of the progressive core of the Democratic Party. There was a loud round of chants for “2024, 2024!” Oh, he answered with a pledge to help elect a Democrat this year, and called on his supporters to work for that end. Mayor Pete did what he needed to do, and salvaged his future as best he could. Perhaps we will see him running for governor, almost certainly we will see him working to be a stronger, leading presidential candidate in 2024.
How will his exit affect the race? Conventional wisdom suggests Mayor Pete voters may shift towards Biden, but might they take a look at Bloomberg? I suspect that neither Biden nor Bloomberg will greatly benefit from Mayor Pete, the first man to run for president with a man as his wife. There were young people who volunteered for this campaign as a statement, as with the first Obama campaign.
Because of the evil of massive mail-in and early voting, it is not clear how many votes for Buttigieg can move to Biden, so it may well be, with Bernie Sanders leading the polls strongly in California and Texas, that Sanders will be nearly unbeatable, if voters’ ballots determine the issue.
There were people who wanted to make a statement about sexual politics and our society loud and clear. They were rudely reminded by black and Latino voters that their intersectional virtue was not indisputable. Why, then would these activists turn their enthusiasm towards an old straight white man?
I suspect that we will see a bit of fall-off in participation by younger voters who are not already Bernie supporters. Expect Warren and Klobuchar to stay in through Super Tuesday. Meanwhile, the path is clearer for a longer, bruising battle between Biden and Sanders. We will see what Bloomberg’s billions actually can buy, but I think he will get a very poor return on investment, starting in Texas.
Published in Elections
I keep watching the odds shift several times a day as to which Democrat is likely to win, or if no one will win at the first ballot. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-primary-forecast/?ex_cid=rrpromo
538 also has an article that Buttigieg dropping out is not good for Sanders. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/election-update-buttigieg-dropping-out-isnt-good-for-sanders/
Thomas Friedman has argued for a “Team of Rivals” approach wherein Buttigieg would be appointed as the Secretary for Homeland Security. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/25/opinion/democratic-primary-candidates.html
Since he was already former Mayor Pete and he is now without a job, I guess he can now be a house-husband or a house-wife or something?
What timing! His campaign signs are just now showing up in advance of Washington’s primary on March 10. He’ll still be on the ballot, since they have already gone out (we vote 100% by mail).
Well, that just means the party operatives can fix up those mail-in ballots for whomever the state party wants to help, if Bernie isn’t a prohibitive favorite already.
He made clear that he is not done with politics, not in the least.
He’s gonna have a hard time winning a statewide election in Indiana, a center-right state, since, contra his claims of being a moderate, he’s a full-blown progressive. Perhaps he can find a congressional district in the state that is blue.
Washington is a lock for Bernie. Since Seattle pretty much runs the state, I estimate Bernie will get about 85% of the Dem primary vote.
Now, our Republican Secretary of State has said that she is boycotting the primary, since we are forced to choose one party’s ballot. She thinks it’s awful that, if you want to vote, you have to choose a party, and all your information is conveyed to that party so they can bombard you with junk mail, etc.
I always assumed he was really running for Veep this time around. Dropping out now is shrewd, it avoids burning bridges with the leading contenders.
538 has Sanders at 40%, Biden at 20%, Bloomberg at 18%, and Warren at 16%.
Mayor Pete can never win a state-wide race in Indiana. A cabinet position is possible, but Trump will most likely win. Perhaps a 2022 House seat or head of DNC would be good for him.
Warren is starting to talk about making a convention play. I am seeing ads for her in Austin from some SuperPAC. The external money will help her stick around.
AmyK should be the choice of the DNC establishment, but I expect she will drop out after Minn. primary on Super Tuesday.
Biden is sooo weak. I have not seen any attacks on him from other candidates or the MSM. Either the fix is in or the other candidates really think he is a zombie candidate.
RCP rolling average for WA has Sanders +8 points over Bloomberg, Biden, and Warren, all clustered with about the same support.
PJMedia headline:
‘Mayor’ Pete Runs Out of Obama Speeches to Pilfer. Drops Out of Democratic President Race.
Why were they chanting “2024”? It’s almost like they assume Trump will win again this time…
And the worst part, no more ButtiDancing:
Why the snark? He’s not the first candidate to end a campaign and have to figure out what to do next.
Given their ages, one would hope that Biden, Bloomberg and Sanders are only one term Presidents.
This is the biggest reason to get rid of early voting. Things can change on a dime. Think of the chaos that would ensue if Sanders-Clinton was the 2020 Democrat ticket, and Sanders croaked before Election Day. How would you count all those early vote for Sanders? They aren’t votes for Hillary as the Presidential candidate . . .
Much ado about nothing, if you ask me.
Dang. Does this mean I’m gonna have to change my name again? :(
I never understood how “Pastor Pete” was sold to the American people as a moderate by the MSM
In my humble opinion, Mayor Pete was a phenomenon of the coasts. The concept that homosexuality has lost its taint is absurd. It may well have gotten to the point that people do not discuss it with the same negativity it once was spoken of, but it is a long way from real acceptance nationwide. When you hear kids, as I did, discuss homosexuality among themselves in school, what you are hearing to a large extent is the opinions of their families and their communities. They are the sieve through which the dirty little secrets filter into the open. That woman who had voted for Mayor Pete in New Hampshire and then regretted it when she learned he was gay was far more representative of real America than the idiots in Hollywood or the college crowd bent on the glories of intersectionality. It is easy to be “liberal” when you don’t have a stake in the game. When your livelihood and the welfare of your children become a reality you suddenly find your views on the super rights of others based on their race or sexual orientation less than attractive. I have always believed that, ultimately, prejudice was caused by economic competition before anything else. That person who would take food out of your mouth or the mouths of your children by his/her very presence in the market rapidly becomes a object of hatred. Give that person an unfair advantage in the race and the process is exacerbated. To many, myself included, being a white male over the last few decades has had a very real disadvantage in the jobs market and, hence, in competition for income. We may be smaller majority in this country than we once were, but we are still the majority.
We can hope that politics is done with him.
I believe that had Petey not been married, he would have had a better chance. This is ironically ironic, like literally ironic, not like Alanis Morrisette ironic.
I said, as soon as he trots-out his husband, the next “first man” and they display any public affection – even holding hands ( especially holding hands?) is not what even fairly tolerant Americans want to see. Acceptance is one thing, gay-immersion is quite another.
I hope that Mayor Pete serves in Joe Biden’s cabinet.
I think in-your-face, LGBT activism with forced acceptance (not to mention those outrageous gay pride parades) is causing long-term problems for homosexuals by making their behavior less and less tolerable. The way same sex “marriage” was forced on people by the courts still leaves a bad taste in the mouths of many . . .
Oy. It leaves a good taste in many more mouths (and no, that’s not a double entendre). Approval polls well into the 60s, even the high 60s and the trendline has been strongly toward greater acceptance for two decades. It’ll never hit 100, but but we can’t even get unanimity on the spherical earth, or evolution, or the utility of vaccination, so in a country with a 50/50 partisan split, high 60s and rising approval is what passes for a settled issue. Let it go.
Approval polls are an abstraction. To say you “approve” of something takes very little effort or commitment. Reality dictates what people do and how they vote when given an alternative. Polls don’t measure those things.
Poor guy just came out of the closet and now you wanna put him in a cabinet. Sheesh.
While I agree that the support for SSM was gaining increasing support in the 2000’s, I don’t think current polling (whatever the numbers say) provides a true picture of the sentiments of the nation on the issue. And, that’s for two reasons. First, the mob-like tactics of the LBGT activists have cowed dissent or any reasonable argumentation on the issue. Ordinary people saw what happened to the Mozilla founder & CEO Brandon Eich and they also saw the abuse heaped on those who had supported California Prop 8, a ballot measure which supported the traditional definition of marriage and passed in the most liberal state in 2008 as the state was also voting overwhelmingly for Barack Obama, an opponent of SSM at the time. Second, the 2012 Obergefell Supreme Court decision took the issue out of the hands of the states and the people. And the fact that the vast majority of polite society (the media, public intellectuals, the education establishment and so forth) cheered on the tactics of the LBGT activists and the Obergefell decision makes it easy (and rational) for those with any qualms about SSM to keep any such qualms to themselves.
Gary Robbins
Given their ages, one would hope that Biden, Bloomberg and Sanders are only one term Presidents.
So you have ruled out Amy and Liz? Isn’t that a little sexist?