Fallon's humor has always fallen a little flat with me, but it especially did when he tried to parody Pete's big announcement on Sunday. My reaction was to wince and move on. Pete's team, consumate professionals that they are, had a better idea. Lucky for them, Pete pulled it off!
Fallon's parody of Buttigieg
Tonight Show promo
If he keeps deflecting the comic arrows with such talent he is going to go the distance.
David Axelrod recommended that Pete hire Lis Smith and I think that was clearly a good call. Axelrod, the former chief campaign strategist for Obama, is running a Masterclass with Karl Rove (Bush's Brain), Promo here, that reminds us all how important these generals and behind the scene teams are to ultimate success. Pete has obviously been listening attentively, as this blurb last year points out:
It’s not happenstance. Nor is keeping on Lis Smith, the hard-charging political operative who makes sure he’s constantly in the news. Or keeping up with Obama strategist David Axelrod, who recommended he hire Smith in the first place for the Democratic National Committee chair race that put Buttigieg on Democrats’ radar last year. Or quietly building relationships over dinners and drinks with big-name Democrats, or courting national reporters, or wooing donors for his PAC, or digging in on political advertising research.
Politico Magazine, a Pete Buttigieg piece by EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE March 27, 2018
The article in full is very interesting and gives insights into what Pete means when he says they are going to learn from the past, while writing their own playbook.
I also saw this news yesterday:
The Hill - Five former Obama ambassadors back Buttigieg
A group of five former ambassadors who served under former President Obama are lining up behind Pete Buttigieg, giving the South Bend, Ind., mayor a jolt of institutional fundraising support amid his meteoric rise in the Democratic presidential primary.
The Obama diplomats — Timothy Broas (Netherlands), John Phillips (Italy), Tod Sedgwick (Slovakia), David Jacobson (Canada) and Bill Eacho (Austria) — raised millions of dollars for the Obama-Biden ticket in 2008 and 2012.
This is the time that people start choosing camps, so it will be interesting to see how the teams take shape. It is also the moment where strategies are tested and possibly rejected, as is suggested in these two recent articles. Clearly, "Love won't keep us together" and "the crowd does not like it when you are not on TV".
Politico - Booker’s message of love falls flat
Politico - Beto confronts TV drought