Phrased another way - you ain't ever gonna get Medicare for All out of Mayor Pete.
No more than you can see it coming from Hakim Jeffries, the new Nancy Pelosi.
.........................................
What fed into posting this screed is an AP feed that for reasons I do not know lit up the pinball machine without reaching the "tilt" termination. Whose brainfart? I do not know, but if Medicare for All is the winning theme to revive a moribund Democratic Party, don't beat it down with an individual who nobody can ever see touting it with honesty as his formative days were with McKinsey. He has McKinsey in his DNA, corporatism abundant, and being given the Transportation Department by Biden was a softball appointment, because who's going to locally complain when road and bridge improvements are funded and jobs result? His feet have never been put to the fire.
There are two threads, the AP widely carried one and The Hill being its own source.
First - AP
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Some believe the Democratic Party’s next
savior is living here, huddled with family, in the relative obscurity of
a small city on the shores of Lake Michigan.
Pete Buttigieg has yet to decide if that’s a responsibility he wants.
For now, Buttigieg, the 43-year-old former U.S. transportation secretary, is discussing his future
with party officials, labor leaders and top strategists. He must decide
soon whether he wants to return to the national spotlight as a
candidate in Michigan’s U.S. Senate race or step aside to instead seek a much bigger role as his party’s next presidential nominee.
Prominent
allies believe Buttigieg cannot feasibly do both, even as others raise
the comparison to Barack Obama, who was elected president just four
years after becoming a U.S. senator.
[...] The Democratic Party may be hurting more at this moment than it was two
decades ago, when voters turned to that first-term senator from Illinois
over more established candidates to lead their comeback from the Bush
years. Indeed, Democrats, demoralized and afraid, are crying out for
strong new leadership with President Donald Trump and his allies,
notably Elon Musk, racing to transform Washington while gutting key federal agencies.
[...] Buttigieg has lowered his profile since leaving the Biden administration last month.
He
hasn’t done any media interviews. He declined to speak to The
Associated Press for this story. And he has challenged Trump only with a
handful of social media posts, notably pushing back on the Republican president’s blaming of diversity hiring for the deadly midair collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
But
based on the response, Democrats like what he has to say. His posts on X
frequently garner millions of views. And just over a week after joining
the newer social media platform Bluesky, he has quickly become one of
its most-followed Democrats.
If that's a yardstick to measure anything substantial, I'll eat my MAGA cap.
Buttigieg, a former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has been a more
visible presence around his new home of Traverse City, a lakeside resort
town that calls itself “the Cherry Capital of the World.” His husband,
Chasten Buttigieg, grew up in Traverse City.
[...] It’s much the same at the local coffee shop, Higher
Grounds Trading Co., which features a pride flag out front and
progressive messages on the walls. [...] “He’s been coming in more frequently,”
barista Sydney Hall said recently, noting she’d served Buttigieg and his
husband earlier that day. [...] Aaron Wright, president of the Traverse City-based Up North Pride,
praised Buttigieg and his family for “sacrificing their physical safety
for the betterment of their local area, the state and society.” He noted
Traverse City is just 20 minutes from where members of a local militia plotted to kidnap Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
“That’s
the No. 1 thing that I would imagine they’re considering is the
physical safety of being where they are, as the people that they are,
because people are drinking out of the firehose of misinformation and
disinformation,” Wright said. “Malignant groups that want to see people
like me suffer.”
That's a long way to saying Pete has bloc appeal to those loving identity politics. He has those feet in one of the blocs, and is not divest of an identity.
Wright’s husband, Trenton Lee, chair of the local
Democratic Party, said his political opponents in local campaigns often
focus on his sexuality rather than policies.
“Pete offers that challenge to the other side, where if you took out
his sexual orientation, the way he’s able to articulate issues and then
actually work on them, he’s a shoo-in for whatever he runs for,” Lee
said. “It forces them to be like, ‘The only issue I have is that he’s
gay.’”
No. The issue I have with him is Republican lite. And it is the Republicanism in a tepid form of corporatism that the Republican Party of Trump has turned upon as unhelpful to real, paycheck to paycheck people who see Replacement effort as alive and against them.
Continuing with AP for Mayor Pete -
Buttigieg is already facing allegations from some critics that he moved to the state solely to help his political career.
Duh. Like he noticed most of Indiana is not as accepting as South Bend -
“It’s
not just that he carpet-bagged to Michigan a few years ago after being
the mayor of South Bend. It’s that he did it in the most unrelatable
enclave in the entire state,” said Jason Roe, a Republican strategist
and former executive director of the state party.
Traverse City,
Roe said, is an “elite bubble” that only “underscores an elitism that
was one of the problems in the Democratic Party.” Roe added that he’ll
be surprised if Buttigieg enters the race, “because if he runs and
loses, he could be done.”
A plum opportunity in a key state
There may be no better staging ground for an ambitious Democrat in 2025 than Michigan.
Democratic Sen. Gary Peters’ unexpected retirement
created a rare Senate vacancy ahead of next year’s midterms. A
Republican hasn’t been elected to the U.S. Senate in Michigan this
century, although Mike Rogers came within less than 1 percentage point last fall and is planning to run again.
Michigan
also offers a home state advantage to any prospective presidential
candidate in 2028. The state is expected to host one of the nation’s
opening presidential primaries. And in the general election, Michigan
will be a premier swing state.
Buttigieg is leaning on powerful allies to help make his decision.
Longtime Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who retired in January
and considers Buttigieg a close friend, attended his twins’ birthday
party and visited him at home recently. She said she doesn’t expect to
endorse in the Senate primary, but she told him directly he’d be a “very
strong” candidate.
“If he announced now, he’d be the
front-runner,” Stabenow told the AP.
[...]
So, the Obama plan, Senate briefly and then go for the big brass ring. Obama was likeable and seemed a populist progressive more than his opposition. Pete, no.
If you can see Pete standing on a stage with Bernie and AOC pitching Medicare for All, you see something I do not.
The Hill wrote its own coverage rather than carrying the AP, as did most outlets. The Hill - its headline -
I doubt Hakim Jeffries is "excited" but his reptilian hindbrain's instincts for middle grounders tells him it's okay to be looking at one of us rather than a true progressive, and Ken Martin likely thinks, Right-on, Hakim. The fact is better is needed. The Hill's reporting:
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is
considering a run for Michigan’s Senate seat, the latest development to
roil what is quickly shaping up to be one of next year’s most
competitive and closely watched races.
Buttigieg moved to the Great Lakes State with his Michigan-native
husband in 2022, triggering questions about his political future after
eventually leaving his post in the Biden administration’s Transportation
Department. Last week’s announcement from Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) that he wouldn’t seek another term in 2026 appears to have opened a clear path for Buttigieg.
While he would likely face opposition and wouldn’t automatically
coast to the nomination, Democrats said they’re excited by the prospect
of Buttigieg jumping in and suggested he would be an early favorite as
one of the best surrogates for the party.
“I’m excited,” said former Rep. Mark Schauer (D-Mich.)
about the prospect of Buttigieg entering the race. “I think he is a
rare political talent, which he’s demonstrated as the Transportation
secretary and on the campaign trail.”
Buttigieg has experienced one of the most rapid rises of any Democrat
of the past five years, going from mayor of South Bend, Ind., to
becoming one of the most prominent voices in the party.
He turned in an unexpectedly impressive performance in the 2020
Democratic presidential primaries, winning the Iowa caucuses and nearly
winning in New Hampshire. Though he dropped out in March, he endorsed
then-candidate Joe Biden and became a key supporter, eventually joining Biden’s administration.
Political observers have expected Buttigieg to seek elected office
again, and he has been rumored as a possible 2028 presidential
candidate. Early polling has often placed him as one of the top
potential choices for Democrats.
But a Senate run in 2026 may be the launching pad for a long political career regardless of any larger future ambitions.
“If it’s your end-state goal to become president, this gets you to
D.C. in one of the very top elected jobs in the country,” said Michigan
Democratic strategist Adrian Hemond.
Buttigieg had already been speculated to be planning a run for
statewide office in Michigan since moving to Traverse City a few years
ago, but much of that had focused on a possible gubernatorial run, with
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) reaching her term limit in 2026.
[...]
Pollster Steve Mitchell, the CEO of Mitchell Research &
Communications, said the firm conducted polling last year on the
gubernatorial race and found in September that Buttigieg had a “huge
lead” over other possible candidates. With Peters not running, a Senate
bid would be easier to pull off for someone relatively new to the state,
he said.
“It seems to me, given the fact that he came to Michigan two years
ago, is not originally from here, running for the Senate is a lot better
position than running for governor,” Mitchell said, adding that running
for governor requires a deeper understanding of the state government.
Candidates seeking office in a state they’re relatively new to have
often faced accusations of “carpetbagging,” but Mitchell said history
shows many more instances of those candidates pulling off successful
Senate runs than gubernatorial bids.
He pointed to Robert F. Kennedy’s (D) successful bid for Senate in
New York in 1964 despite his background in Massachusetts, and former
Sen. Hillary Clinton’s (D) victory in New York in 2000 despite being
from Arkansas.
She was from Chicago, Arkansas being by marriage, and "Hillary's turn" was disaster, no question, she could not even defeat Trump then, which Biden did, and we need not rehash problems and possibly needed solutions at length, again. here and now. The Hill continuing -
Matthew Morey, the communications chair for the Kent County
Democratic Party in Michigan, said Buttigieg also has “deep” ties to the
Midwest and has showed his “commitment” to that region of the country.
And he argued that Buttigieg can have crossover appeal.
“While he absolutely appeals to a huge swath of the Democratic base,
he also has demonstrated that he can work with anybody who is wanting to
make a little bit of progress,” Morey said.
Buttigieg has blazed a bit of his own path in the media, often
seeking out appearances on major conservative media channels and other
seemingly hostile outlets.
The Democrat appeared regularly on Fox News’s daytime newscasts
during the 2024 campaign and sparred with Fox anchor Shannon Bream on
the network’s public affairs show last summer over issues like
immigration and crime.
“There are a lot of Americans who my party can’t blame if they are
ignoring our message because they will never hear it if we don’t go on
and talk about it,” Buttigieg said while defending his decision to appear on Fox in 2019.
Still, Democrats said the field is open and they expect a competitive
and lively primary. While a few other candidates have ruled out bids,
others such as state Senate Majority Whip Mallory McMorrow (D) and Reps.
Haley Stevens (D) and Hillary Scholten (D) are among the top names
being floated, each certainly prominent within Michigan.
“I don’t think that Buttigieg clears the field at all, but he’s
certainly a very, very strong candidate, and if he gets into this race, I
expect he will raise money very, very quickly,” Hemond said.
Corporatism has a pecuniary appeal, that is true but unfortunate, yet then the rubber has at some point to meet the road, and selling McKinstry, against JD, good luck on that, it won't work. JD is as good a talker as Mayor Pete. And has been elevated higher in Trump world. Add to that saying Pete has "crossover appeal" is a euphemism for calling him Republican lite, and that's a loser these days even for actual Republicans. Middle of the road is a place for roadkill. We need someone with a fighting spirit and progressive ideals people can trust as real, which means a person like AOC or Greg Casar, not less.
In Michigan, who knows what sells, but if Pete runs there and loses, game over.
So, for the long term good of the nation, I hope he runs and loses, so that recognition of middle road failure might reach even between Hakim Jeffreys' ears, and between the ears of Schumer and Ken Martin. Progress or failure, and when you lose the spoils there will always be a Project 2025 or such, to capitalize.
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