The Official 2020 Pete Buttigieg Thread

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༺ S❤️PER❤️ ᗰOD ༻
Super Moderator
Pete Buttigieg handled TWO homophobic hecklers in the classiest way possible What a difference from the way Trump handled hecklers during his campaign!
 

MASTERBAKER

༺ S❤️PER❤️ ᗰOD ༻
Super Moderator
Limbaugh draws bipartisan criticism for Buttigieg remarks
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1010 WINS NEWSROOM
FEBRUARY 13, 2020 - 5:56 PM

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Rush Limbaugh reacts as first Lady Melania Trump, and his wife Kathryn, applaud, as President Donald Trump delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020. (Leah Millis/Pool via AP)
The Associated Press



WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh drew bipartisan criticism Thursday for saying the country won't elect Pete Buttigieg president because he's been “kissing his husband" on stage after debates.
Limbaugh's comments came eight days after President Donald Trump awarded him the nation's top civilian honor during the State of the Union address. Trump said Limbaugh inspires millions of people daily and thanked him for “decades of tireless devotion to our country."
Limbaugh, a staunch Trump ally who recently announced he has advanced lung cancer, made the remarks on his nationally syndicated radio show. Buttigieg has finished in the top two in Democrats' first two presidential contests in Iowa and New Hampshire.
“They're saying, ‘OK, how's this going to look?'" Limbaugh said Wednesday, imagining Democrats' thinking. “Thirty-seven-year-old gay guy kissing his husband on stage, next to Mr. Man, Donald Trump.'"
Limbaugh's remarks were the latest tendentious turn in a career in which he's won an adoring audience among millions of conservative listeners, but condemnation from others for comments considered racist, sexist and offensive.
Buttigieg, 38, is the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and has been married to his husband, Chasten, since 2018. Buttigieg was a U.S. Navy intelligence officer in Afghanistan, is a Harvard graduate and was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University in England.
Limbaugh said he envisioned Democrats concluding that “despite all the great wokeness and despite all the great ground that's been covered, that America's still not ready to elect a gay guy kissing his husband on the debate stage president."
Former Vice President Joe Biden, who is challenging Buttigieg for the Democratic presidential nomination, assailed Limbaugh on ABC's “The View."
“I mean, my God,” said Biden, who called it “part of the depravity of this administration.” He added, “Pete and I are competitors, but this guy has honor, he has courage, he is smart as hell."
Some Capitol Hill Republicans said they disagreed with Limbaugh's remark, while others demurred.
“I'm just going to leave all that alone,” said conservative Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., who said she'd not heard the comment. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, facing reelection this fall, also declined to comment.
“It’s a miscalculation as to where the country is at," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a strong Trump supporter, told The Associated Press about Limbaugh's words. "I think the country is not going to disqualify somebody because of their sexual orientation.”
Asked if Limbaugh should retain the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which Trump bestowed last week during his State of the Union address, Graham said, “Well, my God. Free speech still exists.“
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said of Limbaugh, “He may disagree, as I do, with their policy positions, but the question is what their qualifications are, not other issues.” Portman announced his support for gay marriage in 2013 as he revealed that his son Will is gay.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., a moderate who is retiring in January, initially said he wasn't familiar with Limbaugh's remarks and declined to comment. His spokesman later emailed an Alexander statement that said: "There may be reasons not to vote for Mayor Buttigieg, but that’s not one of them. This is a tolerant country.”
A Buttigieg campaign spokesman declined to comment.
But the candidate has addressed criticism over his sexuality before. During a Des Moines, Iowa, rally in 2019, an audience member asked what he should tell his friends who say America isn't ready for a gay president. Buttigieg replied, “Tell your friends I said 'hi.'”
The former mayor has also framed his sexuality in religious terms.
"If me being gay was a choice, it was a choice that was made far, far above my pay grade," Buttigieg said. “If you've got a problem with who I am, your problem is not with me. Your quarrel, sir, is with my creator.”
According to government websites, the Presidential Medal of Freedom is for “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”
Past winners have included Mother Teresa, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Frank Sinatra. Under Trump, the award's recipients have included golfer Tiger Woods, supply side economist Arthur Laffer and Edwin Meese III, who was a top aide to President Ronald Reagan.
The 69-year-old Limbaugh also said some Democrats may believe they should “get a gay guy kissing his husband on stage, ram it down Trump's throat and beat him in the general election. Really? Having fun envisioning that.”
 

QueEx

Rising Star
Super Moderator
Pete Buttigieg drops out of presidential race



Democratic presidential candidate and former South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg speaks with members of the media, Sunday,
March 1, 2020, in Plains, Ga. (Matt Rourke)

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The Washington Post
By Amy B Wang
and Chelsea Janes
March 1, 2020
5:12 p.m. CST


Pete Buttigieg, the 38-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Ind., who saw a meteoric rise from virtual unknown to top-tier contender and became the first gay candidate to make a high-profile presidential run, is ending his campaign.

The development marks an abrupt end to what was briefly an ascendant candidacy, as Buttigieg won the Iowa caucuses and came in second in New Hampshire. But despite attracting enormous attention, significant support and sometimes enthusiastic crowds, there was no clear path forward toward the nomination.

Buttigieg’s decision comes shortly before Super Tuesday, the biggest primary day of the year, at a time when the Democratic race shows signs of becoming a race between Sen. Bernie Sanders and former vice president Joe Biden, with Biden occupying a centrist position that Buttigieg had hoped to make his own.

If there was one vulnerability that felled him, it was his inability to win trust or support from black voters, a key pillar of the Democratic coalition.

After a fourth-place finish in South Carolina Saturday — and results that showed he achieved abysmal levels of support with black voters--Buttigieg consulted with his team Saturday night before flying to Georgia to meet with former President Jimmy Carter Sunday. His campaign scheduled a Sunday night call for donors, and did not provide a subject.

Earlier that day, his campaign held a call with reporters in which senior adviser Michael Halle and deputy campaign manager Hari Sevugan made the case that while Buttigieg likely wouldn’t win any of the 14 states that vote Tuesday, Buttigieg could still accumulate enough delegates to keep Sanders’s lead to a minimum.

But Buttigieg’s campaign has also been realistic about its poll numbers, which allowed him to declare victory in Iowa before official results came in. His Sunday exit suggests his campaign’s internal numbers showed Buttigieg would not be able to stay within striking distance of Sanders on Super Tuesday.

Buttigieg made history by becoming the first openly gay candidate to earn delegates for the presidential nomination in a major political party. He also broke barriers by making his marriage to his husband Chasten a major part of his campaign.

Also the youngest candidate in the Democratic race, he formally launched his campaign last April from a formerly shuttered Studebaker plant in South Bend. His pitch from the get-go was that his youth and lack of Washington political experience were assets, not drawbacks.

In early interviews and campaign speeches, Buttigieg was fond of saying he was the only “left-handed, Maltese-American, Episcopalian, gay millennial-war veteran” in the race — a tongue-in-cheek way of condensing his biography but also of introducing himself to the public. Outside of winning two terms as mayor of South Bend, his highest-profile elections had been a failed 2017 bid for the chair of the Democratic National Committee and running for Indiana state treasurer in 2010, when he lost to the Republican incumbent by more than 20 points.

Nevertheless, with an aggressive, no-holds-barred media exposure strategy, Buttigieg managed to rise in the public consciousness over 2019 and soon began raising more money and polling higher than many of his opponents who were governors or sitting members of Congress. Buttigieg’s obvious intelligence and eloquence excited many Democratic voters looking for a powerful counter-force to President Trump.

He promised to usher in “generational change” to the White House and deliberately avoided releasing detailed plans at first, though he spoke of big ideas like abolishing the electoral college and restructuring the Supreme Court.


In early interviews and campaign speeches, Buttigieg was fond of saying he was the only “left-handed, Maltese-American, Episcopalian, gay millennial-war veteran” in the race — a tongue-in-cheek way of condensing his biography but also of introducing himself to the public. Outside of winning two terms as mayor of South Bend, his highest-profile elections had been a failed 2017 bid for the chair of the Democratic National Committee and running for Indiana state treasurer in 2010, when he lost to the Republican incumbent by more than 20 points.

Nevertheless, with an aggressive, no-holds-barred media exposure strategy, Buttigieg managed to rise in the public consciousness over 2019 and soon began raising more money and polling higher than many of his opponents who were governors or sitting members of Congress. Buttigieg’s obvious intelligence and eloquence excited many Democratic voters looking for a powerful counter-force to President Trump.

He promised to usher in “generational change” to the White House and deliberately avoided releasing detailed plans at first, though he spoke of big ideas like abolishing the electoral college and restructuring the Supreme Court.


Buttigieg accumulated 26 delegates in the race — most ever for an openly gay candidate, and far more than anyone expected him to accumulate at the beginning of his longshot bid. After strong showings in predominantly white states, Buttigieg’s results began to dimish as the race moved to more diverse electorates. Ultimately, he decided they were unlikely to improve.


chelsea.janes@washpost.com


 
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VAiz4hustlaz

Proud ADOS and not afraid to step to da mic!
BGOL Investor

Darrkman

Hollis, Queens = Center of the Universe
BGOL Investor
@MASTERBAKER Update the title of this thread to "....official 2024...."!

BGOL's official "#bootygang":
Who else on BGOL will be joining the #bootygang to advocate for Pete? Come in here and start campaigning for ya boy!! Pete 2024!! We all know it's coming!

@Soul On Ice @Supersav @xfactor @Megatron X @forcesteeler

We're gonna have fun clowning these niggas!!! I can't wait!

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You losers are trying too hard. Pete Buttigieg is just like Bernie Sanders....ab empty suit that got a lot of press cause he was a novelty.
 

xfactor

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
@MASTERBAKER Update the title of this thread to "....official 2024...."!

BGOL's official "#bootygang":
Who else on BGOL will be joining the #bootygang to advocate for Pete? Come in here and start campaigning for ya boy!! Pete 2024!! We all know it's coming!

@Soul On Ice @Supersav @xfactor @Megatron X @forcesteeler

We're gonna have fun clowning these niggas!!! I can't wait!

giphy.gif
They will fall in line for sure. I even posted that Buttigieg was the Manchurian Candidate but the shills can’t see anymore. They just do what they are told and it is unfortunate because this is a time that 3-4 generations of our descendants will be looking back and telling us thank you.
 

VAiz4hustlaz

Proud ADOS and not afraid to step to da mic!
BGOL Investor
You losers are trying too hard. Pete Buttigieg is just like Bernie Sanders....ab empty suit that got a lot of press cause he was a novelty.

So you say. But when the Dems anoint him as their 2024 Presidential candidate, you'll be 100% behind him and his agenda, won't you?
 

VAiz4hustlaz

Proud ADOS and not afraid to step to da mic!
BGOL Investor
Pete Buttigieg's edge over Kamala Harris as a 2024 presidential candidate
Harris has the flashier gig — but might pay a price for it.

Despite the fact that we’re just a year into Joe Biden’s presidency, Democratic donors, strategists and pundits are already eyeing his potential 2024 successors if he declines to run for re-election. And already there’s a new conventional wisdom emerging: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s star is rising while Vice President Kamala Harris’ star appears to be crashing.

The invisible primary — the process by which party elites try to pick a candidate well before any votes are cast or voters even form opinions on candidates — is often ugly business, and it’s already underway.

Buttigieg has got a simpler gig that provides a smoother runway for a presidential run.

It’s far too early to know if current trends will hold over time, and some of the reasons some bundlers are gravitating toward Buttigieg and nervous about Harris are tied to shallow and often indefensible hunches about so-called electability. But it’s worth pointing out that there is one good reason Buttigieg is more well positioned than Harris to take the reins from the man who appointed him: He’s got a simpler gig that provides a smoother runway for a presidential run.

Transportation secretary is generally one of the less glamorous positions in the president’s Cabinet. But in the Biden administration, there’s real opportunity for star power.

That’s because it’s at the heart of Biden’s legislative agenda: Buttigieg is in charge of implementing and championing many of the projects to be enacted under the $1 trillion infrastructure bill passed in November, a huge piece of legislation that has given him unprecedented authority as head of the Department of Transportation. The job is a serious and complex one: It involves overseeing an agency with over 50,000 employees, working with $100 billion in spending and bringing together a wide variety of stakeholders who often have conflicting interests on projects like highways and rail lines and the rebuilding of cityscapes to make them greener and safer.

It’s a job that isn’t particularly vulnerable to controversy. Crucially, infrastructure is one of those extraordinarily rare realms of policy in America that hasn’t become poisoned by polarization (yet). Infrastructure still codes as relatively apolitical, and the prospect of dropping cash on roads and bridges and trains still garners remarkable bipartisan support — the infrastructure bill received the votes of nearly 20 Republican senators when it passed. Buttigieg gets to do ribbon-cutting and tour the Sunday morning talk shows while discussing tangible accomplishments — all while avoiding the kind of pushback that tends to accompany most major policy breakthroughs in our era.

Buttigieg is also using his position to tout anti-racist bona fides by pointing out how doing things like rerouting highways that were designed to help segregate cities is good for racial equality — perhaps an asset for a politician who struggled enormously with Black voters during his presidential candidacy.

Harris’ work as vice president is in some ways the precise opposite of Buttigieg’s. When Biden assigned Harris a sprawling, high-stakes policy portfolio, it was seen as a sign of esteem and an attempt to bring her into the fold on the biggest issues of the day. Harris was tasked with a number of hard jobs, including working on immigration policy, police reform and voting rights. But as my colleague Hayes Brown wrote in June, the complicated and thorny nature of these policy spaces have often put Harris in an awkward spot.

For example, her actions and rhetoric on immigration have elicited criticism from both her right and her left, with Republicans arguing she’s been inattentive to border enforcement and more progressive Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., arguing she has sounded cruel and conservative when discouraging migrants from coming to the U.S.

And issues like voting rights and criminal justice reform don't provide are not policy spaces where there are obvious prospects of big and simple wins because Republicans have stonewalled major efforts to pass bills on them in Congress.

Moreover, to the extent that Harris wants to champion her work in these spaces, the fact that they’re hot-button issues makes her acutely vulnerable to lines of attack used to mobilize Republicans. There is no doubt that 2024 hopefuls in the GOP would eagerly weaponize Harris’ status as one of the administration’s top figures on immigration to falsely caricature her as an open borders enthusiast to energize a party base that gets worked up over immigration. And Republicans are always keen on painting any Democrat who attempts to reform the police, no matter how modestly, as a proponent of police abolition.

In other words, while Buttigieg’s job position aligns neatly with his promise to be a politician who can transcend divisiveness in Washington, Harris’ job aligns neatly with the narrative of many of her critics within the party who fear she will be a polarizing candidate.

There is no guarantee that either politician will continue on the same trajectory. Buttigieg, for example, could take heat over supply chain issues; Harris could play a critical role in helping whip up support for a major bill that passes in the future and run on that. And while Buttigieg's job is simpler to sell, Harris can argue persuasively that she has a much better sense of what it takes to handle business in the Oval Office. But for now, it appears that Buttigieg is a beneficiary of taking a less conventionally flashy gig, while Harris might pay a price for it.

 
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