He’s still not necessarily my first choice but credit were credit is due. When we look back at the very early stages of the 2020 race no one will remember the hair sniffing allegations against Joe Biden, the comb as fork episode with Amy Klobuchar, the perplexing rise of Beto O’Rourke, the thousands of selfies with Cory Booker, the Yang gang, and, sadly Elizabeth Warren’s policy proposals. Mayor Pete looks like hes here to stay and that was NOT predictable. Mayor Pete couldn’t even muster a few votes in his short-lived DNC Chair campaign just months ago and now he is solidly in third place.
Almost 50 years ago Jimmy Carter surprised everybody because he won something called “caucuses” in Iowa, a place that was defined by a Grant Wood painting that had not been discovered by media bigwigs. Everybody who isn’t a President or Vice President has been running the same campaign ever since. The playbook is to try to raise a lot of money, get on the cover of TIME and do “better than expected” in Iowa.
“Somethings happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear” — Buffalo Springfield. Whatever it is, it is THE story, so far, of 2020 is Pete Buttiegig. I look forward to his upcoming town hall on Fox and I like the fact that this guy doesn’t let Markos define who he talks to and is not limited by conventional wisdom. It reminds me a lot of the early days of the Obama campaign.