‘If Biden fades out, Buttigieg stands to take his place…’
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) After Tuesday’s Democratic debates, it seems Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is no longer feeling the Left’s love.
The radical progressive, who is poised to become this election’s Bernie Sanders (as the actual Sanders faces health troubles and an inherent lack of charm) was cast aside by many media outlets in favor of South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
“Buttigieg used forceful rhetoric during the debate to showcase his more moderate proposals,” said USA Today.
Across the board, from far-left outlets to the more conservative Fox News and National Review, “Mayor Pete” found his way to the top of the list. Many ranked Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota—another so-called moderate—in second place.
The consensus, though, was that Buttigieg had the right combination of charisma, flyover-state appeal and fundraising prowess to “set himself on a collision course with Warren,” said The Hill.
It is something of an encore audition for Buttigieg, who rode his first wave of buzz from obscurity to a spot just below frontrunner status, where he has since polled neck-and-neck with heavyweights like Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif.
However, as the primary pool’s top ‘moderate’ alternative, former Vice President Joe Biden, becomes increasingly immersed in the controversy surrounding his Ukraine dealings—for which House Democrats are now attempting another Pyrrhic impeachment crusade against President Donald Trump—Buttigieg seems the next best option to be elevated.
Vox said he had “emerged as the ‘marquee candidate of the centrist Democratic party.’ … If Biden fades out, Buttigieg stands to take his place.”
Much like Biden, who has pivoted to the far left during the campaign on several hot-button issues, including abortion, Buttigieg is, in reality, far from moderate.
He has endorsed slightly scaled-down variations of several radical agenda items, including Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, slavery reparations, minimum wage hikes and ‘free’ college tuition.
More recently, in an LGBT town hall sponsored by CNN, Buttigieg, who is gay, was one of three candidates—including Warren—who supported eliminating disclosure requirements for people who test HIV positive.
Even so, it was a testament to how far toward socialism many of his opponents have veered that Buttigieg was able to masquerade as a centrist while attacking both flanks.
He lodged a direct hit on Warren in the debate, criticizing her for dodging questions on tax increases while drawing contrast with his own public-subsidized healthcare plan
“From beginning to end, Buttigieg was a dominant and commanding force,” said CNN. “Yes, some will say he was ‘mean.’ But debates—and primaries!—are about drawing contrasts, and that is what Buttigieg did. And did very well.”
The left-wing media mouthpiece also commended Buttigieg on a takedown of former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke‘s gun-control proposals while trumpeting his own military service as a Navy Reserve intelligence officer.
“I don’t need lessons from you in courage, political or personal,” said Buttigieg.
But many agreed it was his exchange with another “moderate,” Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard that most stood out.
Gabbard—still holding fast to the old, pre-Trump stance of blanket opposition to U.S. military intervention—lobbed an easy bankshot for Buttigieg to engage in a moment of impassioned—yet generic—grandstanding over the recent withdrawal of troops from Syria.
In a bizarre about-face, leftists who once fervently clamored for U.S. forces to leave the Middle East have criticized Trump for his abandonment of Kurdish mercenaries who were allied in the fight to liberate Syria from ISIS control.
Yet, the Navy veteran Buttigieg was able to trumpet his support for the military and still pander to the Trump-bashing that underlies every liberal policy position in the modern era.
“Respectfully Congresswoman, I think that is dead wrong,” he said. “The slaughter going on in Syria is not a consequence of American presence, it’s a consequence of a withdrawal and betrayal by this president of American allies and American values.”