Bye Bye…
Buttigieg.
It was going to be hard for white Democrats, both party elites and voters, to mobilize behind a candidate with such weak support among people of color as the center-left alternative to Sanders.
So Buttigieg’s departure may have seemed sudden, but it’s likely that the former mayor was going to struggle on Super Tuesday and possibly run out of campaign funds. So this decision is a face-saving move for him.
That said, I don’t think Buttigieg’s departure is solely due to his struggles. Elite voices in the Democratic Party have been worried that the multiple center-left candidates in the race — Biden, Buttigieg, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, etc. — would divide the non-Sanders vote, potentially allowing the Vermont senator to amass a huge lead in delegates on Super Tuesday while his rivals finished below 15 percent in many states. South Carolina is only one state, but Biden’s resounding win there suggests that the former vice-president can combine older, moderate voters, black and white, into a big coalition in a way that Buttigieg probably could not. So my view is that Buttigieg stepped aside in part to help the center-left bloc of the party consolidate around Biden. To some extent, he was being a team player.
That’s from FiveThirtyEight. Selfless Pete, falling on his sword for the good of the moderates in the Party (which he’s really not). Others have a slightly different take.
Like this guy:
Pete Buttigieg is OUT. All of his SuperTuesday votes will go to Sleepy Joe Biden. Great timing. This is the REAL beginning of the Dems taking Bernie out of play – NO NOMINATION, AGAIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 1, 2020
Clever. Trump is insinuating what a lot of people are thinking, which is that some person or people either twisted Buttigieg’s arm or made it worth his while, or both, to drop out in order to hurt Sanders and help Biden. And Trump is also doing a fair amount of concern-trolling of the Bernie Bros, reminding them of the way they believe they got screwed by the Party in 2016. The hope on Trump’s part is that if Biden gets the nomination, Bernie’s supporters stay home.
Perhaps that’s true. But perhaps it’s as I wrote on February 12:
In 2016 I thought if only either Cruz or Rubio (or other contenders) would drop out, all the others’ votes would go to the last Trump-opponent standing, and that person would win. But as time went on, I didn’t see that happening. I saw Trump getting a significant percentage of the votes of each person as that person exited. I began to realize that Trump could get the whole thing.
And I think something similar has a good chance of happening with Bernie. Will it? I certainly don’t know, but I see it as a strong possibility.
Time will tell.
I wonder if he cut a deal with Joe to be his VP? I read similar takes on other sites.
Will his dropping out so soon before Super Duper Tuesday have an effect on the voting? So many states like my state, CO, have early voting so votes have been cast already.
“I wonder if he cut a deal with Joe to be his VP?”
That would mean the major party tickets consist of four white men with Buttigieg’s sexuality the only nod to “diversity”. The horror, the horror!
A cynical student of Buttigieg maintains he’s been aiming for the Presidency of an east coast NGO (and that he’ll eventually get lifts in his shoes and dump Chasten). He’s meat in Indiana politics.
You watch this spectacle and you see what appeals to Democratic voters. They took no interest in John Delaney, who’d run for public offices only after he had built his own business. They took no interest in John Hickenlooper, who’d held executive positions in both government and business. They took no interest in Steve Bullock, a governor who had managed to sell himself to a red state electorate. They took no interest in Tulsi Gabbard, who is unqualified for the office but notable for her decidedly unstereotyped perspective on public issues. Instead, they vote for a collection of caricatures. It all makes you wanna holler.
GDP Growth for Q1 2020 will be anywhere from negative to 1% ish. Some economists are predicting 2 quarters of negative to flat growth. We all know what the market thinks.
Trump was already in a very precarious situation. After all, his #1 “accomplishment”, that we are in the midst of the longest economic expansion in US History, was self-refuting…unless one believes Trump has been President since June 2009.
As November rolls around, even this could be all but gone. With no wall, no repeal of Obamacare, no 3% economic growth, no balanced budget, and no Hillary in jail and he couldn’t even get Andrew McCabe indicted, even most of you here are going to realize that he all he did was play golf and go deficit spending after inheriting a solid economy from his predecessor.
But to be fair, maybe he can get North Korea to publicly announce an investigation into his Democratic rival in exchange for some nukes. So you never know.
Manju’s new world to come:
Manju screams at the sky.
Thanks, Manju, for what is most likely a very accurate prediction of how the Dem media will be talking in the next 9 months.
This is the Dem media that refuses to really cover Trump’s many, hugely attended rallies. The man-in-the street Reps are excited and enthusiastic about Trump.
Only Bernie has any exited Dem supporters.
And the Dems are about to panic if Trump gets 15-20% of the black vote, and even more of the (legal) Latino (Hispanic?) vote.
Bernie vs Gaffe-o-matic Biden vs mini Mike maxi billion Bloomberg.
In Nov., it will be some Dem vs Trump; a yes/no on Trump. Any of these could beat Trump if the Dems are successful at blaming Trump for China’s coronavirus global recession. However, there will be some help to the US economy in the next 1-4 years as more companies decide the slightly lower cost Chinese production isn’t worth the risk of commie control / pandemic, plus tariffs, plus some bad publicity on human rights. So they move more production back to the US, including lots of automation.
All those econ experts who were against Trump’s China tariffs will be shown to have been wrong vs Trump being right on China, in reality. They will claim their theory was better than Trump’s instinct (too much unbalanced trade with non-free market, non-free trade China), but this pandemic is a “black swan”. No. SARS was, arguably, a black swan / unpredictable event, but since then a China caused pandemic should be an explicit risk. Those who fail to include such risk are poor excuses for experts – but the Dem media like such experts.
Bernie rolls big,
Then, the dang “invisible hand”.
Poof – Biden!
Art Deco brings up a good point. There were candidates in this field who SHOULD have been viable choices for the moderate, non-Bernie vote. There were even candidates who theoretically could have been more appealing to the Left than a really old dude who just had a heart attack.
But we’re ultimately left with a largely unreformed 1970s socialist, a guy who genuinely appears to be in cognitive decline, and an oligarch who is trying to simply buy the Democratic nomination. How did it come to that?
Mike
I wonder if he cut a deal with Joe to be his VP?
I think that would be unlikely. It would have been better to stand in the primary tomorrow, gather up as many votes — and delegates — and then drop out and hope for a brokered convention. Or that Sleepy Quid Pro Joe has enough delegates that adding yours to his gives him a first ballot nomination. Then pledge your delegates for the VP spot.
How did it come to that?
Because a loud number of democrat rank and file are disgusted with their political elites and are no longer following their cues? How did we get Sanders? has the same answer as How did we get Trump?
Pete Buttigieg’s father was a Marxist professor who lauded the Communist Manifesto
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/pete-buttigiegs-father-was-a-marxist-professor-who-lauded-the-communist-manifesto
Joseph Buttigieg was considered the US expert on the writings of Antonio Gramsci and and ardent supporter of his methods and intentions.
Ol’ Mayor Pete is every bit the commiescum that Bernie is. Pete is just way better at hiding it from the prols until he gets where he needs to be.
So, this may not have been a strong arm or coercion motivated move by Petey Boi. This may have been intending to put his own support behind Bernie and then get a job within the commiescum gov after.
Petey Boi is very young still. Too young to have built the necessary cult of personality required for commiescum leaders.
My guess is he’s angling to set himself up for a “rises through the ranks” type build up.
Trump is insinuating what a lot of people are thinking
He does that a lot, it is one of the reasons his tweets have impact. Another of his secret weapons is smart women, Trump is one of the few who actually appreciates and relies on smart women.
“How did it come to that?”
The Unicorn-in-Chief made sure it was all about him. ME. I.
So no need to support TNG because it was all in the bag. (Obama’s an introvert in any event. Can’t be bothered unless things really get really FUBAR.)
Besides, the Democratic Party—the smart party, the wise party, the moral party, the party of dynamism and youth, and of course representing the arch of history—would stay in power for decades to come, no sweat.
The party of the Now. The party of the Future.
The International MSM was riding shotgun (and then some). The courts were getting packed. The academies were all loaded, locked and aimed in (at?) the right direction.
And government institutions were weaponized, ready and willing to “do the right thing”.
Indeed, today is ours…and “Tomorrow belongs to [us].”
Yes, the DP was just too good, too smart, too moral, too sophisticated (and too much in total control of the media) to fail.
(Which is why, of course, Hillary “really” won the 2016 election. Clearly won. Undisputably.)
Back here on planet earth, however, we perhaps ought to amend that penultimate paragraph to:
“Yes, the DP was just too…freaking delusional to succeed.”
(And it’s truly hard to believe, but since then they’ve become even more delusional. Very difficult, it appears—even impossible—to change trajectory.)
Tom Grey:
Actually, new flulike illnesses coming from China are not black swans. They happen regularly, although not every year. And that’s been going on for a long long time.
So far, COVID-19 doesn’t seem any different, either. What’s different is the MSM wants to hype it even more than usual because of Trump, and too much of the world is dependent on China now.
“Instead, they vote for a collection of caricatures.”
I’d take it a step further and say that they vote for fictional characters in the story of ME. How does voting for this candidate make ME feel and ME look? This is the eternal question of the Democratic voter. They’ll sacrifice YOUR best interests and, to a vanishingly small/purposefully poorly analyzed extent, their own, in order to feel better about themselves. All of them. Even members of nominally oppressed communities will vote for “the black candidate” or “the woman” (or whatever) even given the easily demonstrable history that “the black candidate” won’t help them.
I’d take it a step further and say that they vote for fictional characters in the story of ME. How does voting for this candidate make ME feel and ME look?
Good point.
Klobuchar drops out, endorses Biden, thus proving she never did have the discernment requisite to the office she sought.
Does Manju actually believe that Malarkey™ or does he just think that by repeating it often enough, he can fool the LIVs into believing that the Corona virus-caused market drop proves that DJT did not improve the economy?
Neo, you’re right that “new flulike illnesses coming from China are not black swans. They happen regularly,”
Which is what I said, the message.
I’m also saying the Dem media will claim that those econ free trade “experts” who were against Trump on tariffs, will give him 0 zero credit for pushing to diversify production away from China. Those econ Trump-haters will claim it’s a black swan coincidence that Trump’s actions against China have the positive effect of reducing the time for the rest of the world to respond to China’s increasing production problems.
Dem media was against Trump being careful early with a China travel ban, and now are against Trump because his early care was not careful enough. Did you see the NASA picture of much reduced China pollution when their factories are not spewing their filth into the air?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8059385/Amazing-NASA-images-pollution-CLEARED-China.html
Speaking of links from Instapundit, some high ranking Iranian aide has also gotten COVID-19 and died.
Bye bye.
Tom Grey on March 2, 2020 at 8:25 am said:
Thanks, Manju, for what is most likely a very accurate prediction of how the Dem media will be talking in the next 9 months.
Richard Saunders on March 2, 2020 at 1:54 pm said:
Does Manju actually believe that Malarkey™
* * *
Manju is a very useful window on the current list of MSM / Democrat talking points.
That he is not always in front of the MSM is a problem; it would be nice to know ahead of time what the current journolist memo has declared.
However, any reasonably cogent follower of the news can probably predict / identify the points that will be headlined, chyroned, and chewed to rags over the following weeks, and brought up as needed over the next 9 months or more, but without adding any disclaimers when they get debunked.
Cases in point: Sarah Palin & The Cross-Hairs; Trump & Charlottesville; or just pick your favorite regurgitated fake news talking point.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/03/21/trump_didnt_call_neo-nazis_fine_people_heres_proof_139815.html
https://www.politifact.com/article/2019/apr/26/context-trumps-very-fine-people-both-sides-remarks/
Politifact gives the full transcript, which completely supports Trump and RCP, but declines to actually state that fact in so many words.
MBunge on March 2, 2020 at 9:56 am said:
… How did it come to that?
* * *
Because the Democrat leadership is a criminal racket masquerading as a political party?
Some of those well-qualified candidates shut out of the primaries for one reason or another might actually have some integrity, weren’t part of the inner circle of corruption, and could have blown the whistle on their colleagues once in office.
Which of the 3 leading candidates is going to do that?
“Did you see the NASA picture of much reduced China pollution when their factories are not spewing their filth into the air?” – Tom Grey
I had seen speculation that the virus did so much damage in China because of the already weak respiratory systems of the residents, and that the factory shut-downs were clearing the air, but those pictures are incredible.
Just a reminder to Manju and the Clean New Deal bunch: if you shut down America’s natural gas exports, the nuclear plants, and the currently pretty good American coal-burning electricity plants, you are going to get the same pre-virus pictures in the US, because that’s what we used to look like.
Wind and solar will NOT make up the difference.
And they can’t provide the power to manufacture their own components.
Old news now (it “aired” yesterday), but, just for the record: even the LGBT community wasn’t going to vote for Pete.
https://libertyunyielding.com/2020/03/01/lgbtq-community-disenchanted-with-pete-buttigieg-for-not-being-gay-enough/
See? The Mayor Pete character is not “on brand” for The Gay Community.” It doesn’t make them feel good about themselves. (This has nothing to do with Mayor Pete’s policy positions.)
See? The Mayor Pete character is not “on brand” for The Gay Community.” It doesn’t make them feel good about themselves. (This has nothing to do with Mayor Pete’s policy positions.)
Booty-gag respects certain rubrics when relating his personal odyssey. The trouble is, the narrative he’s concocted (whether it be accurate or not) is interpreted as implied criticism by militant homosexuals or reminds them of gay subtypes they do not like.
That’s part of it but the Gay Community in general didn’t warm to him either. The semiotics didn’t work for him on a larger scale within his own tribe. His character was not compelling. P.S. the accuracy of the story is of tertiary importance to the Left. The policies go without saying and the absence of logic underlying them is not spoken of, as exemplified by the substance-free debates.