Now this I can respect. If you are going to be a fan of “vetting”, then don’t start whining when it happens to someone you favor.
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Demoted a police chief under FBI investigation and removed some abandoned buildings? Wow, that’s really toxic stuff. If I had pearls, I’d be clutching them.
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As is a President of a Small plumbing supply company, managing a diverse set of subjects… doesn’t mean they can step in and run Amazon.
It’s not like we are talking a major Metropolitan city like NY, LA, Chicago
That said, you have a fair Point Re: Senators. In fact more than fair. How much actual “Passing Legislation” do Senators do? 
The people of South Bend don’t quite see it that way. Maybe we should listen to the people who live there?
Just a few days before, Buttigieg, a rising star of the Democratic Party, officially launched his bid for president at an abandoned Studebaker plant downtown that the city helped convert into a 800,000-square-foot tech hub, a symbol of the city pushing beyond its 20th century roots.
Neely, who lives just a few miles away, hadn’t heard about the announcement. And, he said, he hasn’t seen the progress.
“This s— looks the same, every time I walk through here,” Neely assessed somberly. Though he acknowledged that the mayor was “trying,” the teenager delivered a blunt conclusion: “He’s improved s—.”
Fair Question.
Obama, was on the radar for a couple years as Presidential caliber. As such the scrutiny started early and we all were comfortable with the Head on his shoulders and his cool and collected demeanor. He also when 1st arriving at the Senate, he worked older senators like Lugar and McCain on foriegn policy issues, outwardly showing us he is engaging.
I would add that he had some state legislative experience.
True…some of those running in 2020 are on there 1st term as senators.
Harris Was AG, that’s not to be sneezed at… (my current choice)
Booker has the mayor thing prior to the Senate, Newark is pretty big (though it smells awful)
Warren is 2nd term. As is Amy.
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And he is married . . . to another guy! (And what kind of name is Chasten anyway?)
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Filing FOI requests? Wait. Isn’t the media doing that? TPM surely is.
To the extent that this is news, more trenchant reporting would include information, or attempts to learn, about what’s new about this approach, what is it costing (ah, the consultant class, billing big bucks), and is this meaningful in view of Buttigieg’s youth, and what he’s released himself about his background.
When Jesus Christ enters politics and runs, reach out to me and I will support him. I’m so tired of people without perfect records wanting support.
Remember that the perfect is always the enemy of the good.
Also, alert me in any city where abandoned buildings were removed without someone being upset. Here in St Louis, this is a daily occurrence.
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Nobody is talking about perfection. That’s a straw man.
Remember all the scrutiny Bernie got for his weak support from blacks?
Now it’s Mayor Pete’s Turn in the Barrel. I am sure all of the people who were so very concerned about Bernie in this arena will now also be extremely vocal about Pete’s weak support from minorities, yes?
But about an hour and a half before that, David Axelrod had tweeted something else: “Crowd seems very large, very impressive but also very white — an obstacle he will have to overcome.” He followed three minutes later with, “And by obstacle I mean deficiency. He will need to build out his coalition in a very diverse party.”
Axelrod’s observation has helped spark national media attention on whether Buttigieg can appeal to enough minority and working-class voters to win a Democratic presidential nomination. Those outlets also are scrutinizing Buttigieg’s record and relationship with the city’s black community.
His overwhelmingly white crowds were especially noticeable during his four March 23 events in South Carolina, an early primary state where 28 percent of the population, but 55 percent of the Democratic electorate, is black
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I don’t think Trump has ever established himself as a “human being.” I’m going with "Reptilian Illuminati’ for $200, Alex.
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It would seem that a candidate can differentiate themselves from other candidates without « going negative »
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The mayor’s main weak spots will likely center on his past demotion of a black police chief and an initiative he led as mayor to get rid of abandoned homes in South Bend, according to NBC.
I know a woman in charge of identifying and razing abandoned homes in a medium sized city. Homes that are too far gone to serve as candidates for rehabbing. Homes no one can be enticed into buying, even for a dollar. The cost of razing them while following asbestos and lead abatement laws precludes most investors from biting. She peforms a service the community in general is in agreement with, and a great many structures serving no purpose other than housing vermin, squatters, drug dealers or prostitue flop rooms are being eliminated. How this is a negative on Buttigieg is a puzzle. Eliminating irredeemable housing stock and providing affordable housing for those that can't afford it are two different issues requiring separate solutions
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Senators learn how to govern if they are to be successful and they get an understanding how the Federal government works. The legislation that actually becomes law is written in the Senate. The ACA is an example of this. If they serve on the Foreign Relations committee they actually get a lot of foreign policy experience as they are much more involved in international issues than most people appreciate. All foreign aid bills go thru this committee.
It is fair to point out that this is not the same thing as leading a large organization as the POTUS does, which is a very different set of skills. But a POTUS needs to understand how the Senate works if she is going to actually pass legislation.
The best experience is being the governor of a large state, but there is a lot to learn in the Senate. Nothing perfectly trains anyone to be POTUS.
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Don’t want to speak for him, but I think @cervantes comment referred to Trump’s essential nature as a (terrible) human being.
But yeah, Mayor Pete seems like an awfully decent person. I mean, what kind of guy volunteers for military service after graduating from Harvard and Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, just because he wanted to mitigate his White privilege and make a contribution to his country?
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He speaks French. Seems suspiciously froggy to me.
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I bet Joe Biden isn’t doing that.
Experience is big, but it isn’t everything. Lincoln’s experience didn’t amount to much and he did okay.
Buttigieg almost surely doesn’t expect to win. He is probably running for VP or name recognition: something he can use in later elections. Others have done that in the past. One of them, almost by accident, became president in 1992. Marital infidelity and impeachment aside, he didn’t do too badly.
Right now, Buttigieg is the candidate I like most. The others, I like for this reason/that reason/the other reason, but in the end, I’m just not seeing it. (That’s an assessment for the primary, not the general where I’d vote for Hannibal Lector over Trump.) It’s early days and all that may change. And yeah,experience may not be everything, but it’s big.
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`Worse, he speaks eight languages, including Farsi, Arabic, and Spanish. You know what that means… He’s one of those Mooslem terrorists who are sneaking in across the border at Laredo.
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on the housing: Buttigieg’s program to repair or raze South Bend homes that have been left vacant has been one of the biggest points of scrutiny early in his candidacy and it came up in a question from Harvard student Emily Brother.
She asked him what lesson he learned from criticism about the initiative, particularly as it affected South Bend’s African American and Latino residents, and how those lessons would inform national legislation.
“No policy is perfect, and we learned some things on this one.” In particular, he said the policy made it hard to discern out-of-town landlords who “thought of these houses as lines on a spreadsheet” from investors who owned a few homes.
It also led to several situations, he said, involving someone who would buy a property with the intention of fixing it up but only later discover that the property was on the city’s list of vacant/abandoned homes to be demolished.
“Over time, we learned to be more in dialogue with homeowners, at least when we could figure out who they were, and had a bit of a lighter touch or at least a more accommodating conversation between the enforcement side and the homeownership side.”
on the police: Harvard student London Vallery asked Buttigieg what is on the tape recordings at the heart of a South Bend Police Department scandal in which Buttigieg demoted Darryl Boykins, the city’s first African-American police chief, not long after the mayor took office in 2012.
Buttigieg has said he made that decision after learning the chief was using the tapes – which captured conversations of some police officers without their consent – inappropriately.
In his reply to Vallery’s question Monday night, Buttigieg said he didn’t know and hasn’t sought to listen to them out of concern their creation may have violated federal wiretapping laws.
The matter is the subject of a costly court battle, the most expensive in the city’s history, in which the City Council has sued the city. Buttigieg has said previously, however, that that he’s heard they are racially charged.
He went on to talk about changes he made in the police department to be more inclusive in the community, body cams on all police, etc.
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“The mayor’s main weak spots will likely center on his past demotion of a black police chief and an initiative he led as mayor to get rid of abandoned homes in South Bend, according to NBC”
Wrong. His big weak spot is the relatively low tolerance and respect for LGBTQ folks in the Black and Latino demographic within the Democratic party. That’s not an easy thing to say in public though, so I’m not surprised the media isn’t focusing on it.
Maybe I’m wrong, and I hope so because I like him. But once any serious polling starts in the Southern and Southwestern states (and South Florida), I think that picture will become more clear.
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