2020 Trump Opponent: Pete Buttigieg

[cneutron]

Despite all that fundraising, he's the only major democratic candidate who isn't offering staffers health insurance

This last piece is a little disingenuous.
It's VERY hard to negotiate a plan for a small campaign. He's probably just scaled up enough to even negotiate it (about 50 is the break point). That's less on mayor Pete and more on our ridiculous, counter intuitive and irritating for profit health care system. Also: the exchange is a hellscape and all of that "consumer choice" doesn't matter at all when you have to navigate it. Speaking from experience here.

Also, i've never worked on a campaign on the scale of a Presidential campaign but even being paid staff AT ALL is kind of crazy huge. Most people are volunteers, even if they put in 40-60 hours. That's just how our system works.

[Clyde]

Despite all that fundraising, he's the only major democratic candidate who isn't offering staffers health insurance

This last piece is a little disingenuous.
It's VERY hard to negotiate a plan for a small campaign. He's probably just scaled up enough to even negotiate it (about 50 is the break point). That's less on mayor Pete and more on our ridiculous, counter intuitive and irritating for profit health care system. Also: the exchange is a hellscape and all of that "consumer choice" doesn't matter at all when you have to navigate it. Speaking from experience here.

Also, i've never worked on a campaign on the scale of a Presidential campaign but even being paid staff AT ALL is kind of crazy huge. Most people are volunteers, even if they put in 40-60 hours. That's just how our system works.

I dunno, man, this part is pretty damning:

To be sure, offering health care to workers is a complicated arrangement for employers, particularly small ones just getting off the ground. Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, was unknown to the American public until recently, and as his campaign has taken off, it has been forced to rapidly expand from a handful of staffers to a full-fledged national operation.

Still, veterans of past Democratic campaigns said that it’s typical for campaigns to make sure their workers can buy into a group health care plan. Teal Baker, who was the deputy chief operating officer for President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign, said everyone other than part-time field or advance staffers was salaried with benefits. She said even when she joined the first Obama campaign, in March 2007 — shortly after he entered the race — she had access to benefits.

[cneutron]

I dunno, man, this part is pretty damning:

To be sure, offering health care to workers is a complicated arrangement for employers, particularly small ones just getting off the ground. Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, was unknown to the American public until recently, and as his campaign has taken off, it has been forced to rapidly expand from a handful of staffers to a full-fledged national operation.

Remember: he was South Bend Mayor, not Vice President of the United States, he didn't have campaign funds set aside from previous runs for this and administration of group plans is time consuming and usually works on one month cycles with weirdly arbitrary deadlines.

His campaign has scaled up quickly, I know we exist in an alternate timeline where a week is a year, but the Mayor Pete *bump* is about a month and a half old. He was a dude nobody had heard of with a goofy name before that.

I'm flat out telling you, it's a disingenuous story. I'd suggest moving on.
If it's still the case in six months, THAT is a story.
And that's also coming from somebody who has worked on a lot of campaigns, not just another keyboard warrior.

[Clyde]

I dunno, man, this part is pretty damning:

To be sure, offering health care to workers is a complicated arrangement for employers, particularly small ones just getting off the ground. Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, was unknown to the American public until recently, and as his campaign has taken off, it has been forced to rapidly expand from a handful of staffers to a full-fledged national operation.

Remember: he was South Bend Mayor, not Vice President of the United States, he didn't have campaign funds set aside from previous runs for this and administration of group plans is time consuming and usually works on one month cycles with weirdly arbitrary deadlines.

His campaign has scaled up quickly, I know we exist in an alternate timeline where a week is a year, but the Mayor Pete *bump* is about a month and a half old. He was a dude nobody had heard of with a goofy name before that.

I'm flat out telling you, it's a disingenuous story. I'd suggest moving on.
If it's still the case in six months, THAT is a story.
And that's also coming from somebody who has worked on a lot of campaigns, not just another keyboard warrior.

Okay, fair enough although you did clip off the damning part of the quote. I will give Mayor Pete the benefit of the doubt on this one. (The Silicon Valley stuff is bad no matter how you cut it.)

[llllllllllllllllllllllll]

[Trey]

It would be great if we could just do away with having presidents.

[Andrew.]

The turn in the third paragraph of this is nicely executed. Followed instantly with the simple alternative: "Don't fall for it." And then the evidence. Concise piece of writing and a good example of ideological intervention (pushing the Overton window).

Gravel's anti-imperialist politics strike at the heart of the Democratic Party, even if he's wacky in other respects. Heard him interviewed on Pod Damn America and he said his top pick for Dem candidate was the unannounced Michael Bloomberg... I was like, oh right, this guy is 98 years old and he's not tight on everything. Great on U.S. imperialism though.

[placeholder]

This does not surprise me in the least.

Will obv still vote for him if he gets the Dem nomination, but I sure hope he doesn't get it.

[garthplinko]

As a former long-time resident, as a Mayor Pete supporter/defender, as a person who believes black lives matter and that police are often more evil than necessary, this has been extremely difficult to watch unfold.

I gave Pete a pass when he fired the black police chief because "reasons."

I gave Pete a pass when the speech he delivered at a BLM rally that sounded more like a political message and avoided taking a tough and strong stance and avoided directly addressing the challenges and ideas presented by the people who spoke before he did.

I am starting to feel regret and a little shame at this.

As much as I defend it (because fuck you all who are guilty of punching down at the residents of any hard luck town), honestly South Bend was kind of a bum-out and only recently started improving - at least if you were a white person who liked things white people like. Had/has a ton of problems that were way too big to fix easily. But things were getting better, at least on the surface and Mayor Pete was kinda the embodiment of that progress to me and many others in the community. But I also saw plenty of people being left out...and I remained mum to that. No, that's not mayor Pete's fault but let's be honest, if you want to be the leader to move the country forward, this is something that really needs proven demonstrated leadership on.

Knowing the community, knowing where Pete came from and the other residents there that have been largely ignored, there is so much more I would love to discuss - but in the backyard w/ friends and even then it'd be mostly theory and conjecture.

I have been guilty of ignoring these very important issues because of my own privilege as a white person. Because it's easy to be swept up in the wake of a well-spoken and charismatic speaker. Because of what I had hoped was finally something good to come out of a city that has been hurting since ten years before I was born.

I still think he's got potential to really help move the country forward, but I think he needs to stop and recognize the white blind spot that many who live in South Bend (and the country) have. White people (myself included) have a difficult time understanding issues that minorities face on a daily basis and it requires a lot of sometimes painfully honest work. I hope this is a lesson he and other leaders can actually learn instead of just paying lip-service to them.

[eliya]

I still think he's got potential to really help move the country forward

I don't understand this bit. Other than knowing multiple languages and being young and gay, he's not really saying anything as far as actual policies or even his opinions. Meanwhile Warren and Sanders are actually suggesting radical policies.

[garthplinko]

I still think he's got potential to really help move the country forward

I don't understand this bit. Other than knowing multiple languages and being young and gay, he's not really saying anything as far as actual policies or even his opinions. Meanwhile Warren and Sanders are actually suggesting radical policies.

Not sure what's unclear. You said it yourself: he's young and gay. He's well-spoken and non-threatening. He has a way of being accessible and accepted by people in a part of the country not exactly known for tolerance and progressive-thought. I don't think it hurts the left to have someone who can speak to people in the midwest and bust some bubbles on Fox News or whatever.

Yes, he is lean on concrete policies, but I think he'd make a great press secretary or maybe some other cabinet post.

[Sprague Dawley]

CNN Cuomo just gave him a good 20 minutes one on one the day before Demo debates. Shady. Why him? 2% guy gifted a huge leg up. He did well though. Still didnt have an answer why he's polling 0% with black voters though.

Still odd he was picked for such primo exposure. Why not Yang? He's 7th= with Pete on 2%. Yang! Vote Yang damnit!

Only a matter of time before Trump refers to him as "Pete Buttplug". "You can't have a President named 'Pete Buttplug'. It's unpresidential!"

meanwhile Donnie'll tell his campaign staffers "if I lose to a fag named Pete Buttplug you are all so fired." <nervous laughter from staffers. Trump not smiling at all>

[AdamN]

The most votes he's ever received in an election is slightly more than 8,000. In a city with around 100,000 residents. While claiming that he is trying to expand voter participation at a national level, he couldn't even get his own city to turn out in greater numbers between his two electoral victories (it actually decreased by 26 percent from 2011 to 2015).

[seanurban]

Mayor Pete: smart sailor
Jimmy Carter: smartest sailor

[rayword45]

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/15/politics ... index.html

Fuck this jokester

[cneutron]

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/15/politics/pete-buttigieg-medicare-for-all-ad-elizabeth-warren-bernie-sanders/index.html

Fuck this jokester

Yeah. This just bumped him down to about 6th place for me. Idiocy.
And yes, he’s clearly trying to angle as a Biden alternative.

Screw that. I have no time for this.
“Medicare for All Who Want It” Jesus Christ, not since “stronger together” has there been a more toothless, bloodless and focus group tested sounding nothing term!

[NewDarkAge]

Medicare for some, miniature American flags for others!

[jeff_fox]

They HAD to have thought this through more than I'm giving credit for, but what the hell? Who would choose to keep their insane bullshit insurance plan? Who wouldn't want free healthcare, given the choice? If some millionaires wanna have their own expensive private doctors and 0 wait time or whatever, I don't think anyone's gonna try to stop them.

[cneutron]

They HAD to have thought this through more than I'm giving credit for, but what the hell? Who would choose to keep their insane bullshit insurance plan? Who wouldn't want free healthcare, given the choice? If some millionaires wanna have their own expensive private doctors and 0 wait time or whatever, I don't think anyone's gonna try to stop them.

The campaign has gotten a lot of money from Kaiser, I know that.

It's an insane argument and it's all done with the logic and critical thinking faculties of a 5 year old. Easily disprovable right wing frames like this desire for: "consumer choice" are repeated over and over again as if the repetition itself makes them true. Every. Single. Debate. Question. is exactly the same. Just trying to catch people saying: "I'll raise taxes.", while completely ignoring the fact that employer based health care is paid for by DEDUCTIONS FROM YOUR PAYCHECK.

It's truly insane, and all the more so if you know even a modicum of information about the health insurance industry.

[Angus Jung]

The campaign has gotten a lot of money from Kaiser, I know that.

Many of the worst, most destructive forces out there love this guy:

Mayor Pete is Silicon Valley's Hottest New Startup

Seriously, fuck this loathsome Howdy Doody-looking piece of crap.