He narrowly won in Iowa - the first openly gay man to do so - and would've won hands down in New Hampshire had it not been for a strong showing by Amy Klobuchar. At the risk of patting myself on the back, I was one of the few people who predicted he could win both. But then that was only to help Joe Biden win the nomination. The idea that he could actually be the Democratic nominee never crossed my mind.
The ascendancy of Pete Buttigieg throughout this campaign has truly been something to behold. From his first town hall to the last debate he participated in a week ago, you could tell there was something unique - dare I say Obama-like - about the man. He was poised and direct - sometimes to a fault - but never condescending. And like Obama, he was more pragmatic than progressive, which I have no doubt didn't sit well with many millennials.
His maturity belied his age; he had just turned 38. And his grasp of the issues rivaled that of seasoned politicians. You kept wondering when he would crack under the pressure of the campaign trail; when he would show his true colors. Except that never happened. Turns out the man up on that stage was the real deal. He didn't need to put on airs. What you saw was what you got.
His problem was obvious from the start: he never gained the traction he needed within the African-American community. His handling of the Eric Logan shooting by a South Bend police officer last year while mayor left a bad taste in the mouths of local African American leaders. And even though he took full responsibly for what happened - which is rare in politics - he was never able to get past it. In the end, that, more than anything else, proved to be his undoing. In a party as diverse as the Democratic Party, if you can't get the black vote, you're dead in the water.
Buttigieg could see the writing on the wall. Whether he dropped out of the race now or a week from now, it wouldn't have made any difference. There was simply no path ahead for him to the nomination. And he knew it. When Chuck Todd asked him on Meet the Press Sunday morning where he thought he could pick up delegates on Super Tuesday, the only answer that he came up with was they'd be "looking at the math." Well, they did the math and the math added up to nada.
Give Buttigieg this much: rather than wait until Wednesday morning, he acted now, while there was still time to help his fellow center-lane candidates. The most recent poll from CBS News / You Gov - the one I referenced in my last piece - shows Buttigieg at 9 percent in California and 6 percent in Texas. Conversely, Joe Biden, in that same poll, is at 19 and 26 percent respectively. And while there's no way to predict with any degree of certainty where Buttgieg's voters are likely to wind up, the likelihood is that Biden will get the lion's share of them. And that is good news for the anti-Bernie contingent of the party that is rightly concerned about him winning the nomination. In fact, in that same poll, Biden is only 4 points behind Sanders in Texas. It is not inconceivable that he could overtake Sanders and eke out a narrow win there.
Pete Buttigieg has a bright future in this party. He is young, talented and smart as a whip. If Biden eventually goes on to win the nomination and the White House, look for the former mayor to possibly get a cabinet position. And should Trump get reelected - perish the thought - Buttigieg will be back in 2024, that much wiser for the wear.
What he accomplished on the campaign trail and the way in which he put his party's interests ahead of his own personal ambitions, should serve as a power of example to every politician in the country. Kudos to him for doing the right thing.
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