One of them is a Rhodes scholar and former Navy lieutenant who served in Afghanistan, graduated magna cum laude from Harvard, speaks eight languages, and references Faulkner offhand with as much ease as he does Eminem.
The other is an unemployed trust fund baby whose billionaire father-in-law bankrolled his onion-thin congressional career, culminating in a public mid-life crisis.
Yet somehow the media can’t stop likening the likeable and experienced South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg to the aggressively mediocre Beto (read: Robert Francis) O’Rourke in the same breath.
Sure, on paper they’re both longshot candidates for the presidency. But the former possesses actual charisma, qualifications, and momentum, whereas the latter’s credentials are as lacquered as the glossy magazine covers the press insists on gifting him.
Pete Buttigieg and Beto O’Rourke have created some initial buzz, but they have qualifications typically considered insufficient for presidential candidates. How much does that matter? @ed_kilgore writes https://t.co/BljidDSYjt
— Intelligencer (@intelligencer) March 27, 2019
The media’s been blowing hot air into the Beto balloon for the entirety of the past year, first during his semi-serious bid to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and now during his cathartic release masquerading as a presidential campaign.
Beto, Vanity Fair says, has a “preternatural ease,” an “aura,” and a “gift.” The magazine asks whether he’s “the left’s Obama-like answer to Trump in 2020.” The New York Times dresses up his nonexistent policy chops as “appear[ing] less concerned with political ideology than the pursuit of authentic experiences and a sense of community.” Jonathan Chait at New York magazine deems him “highly charismatic and inspirational,” and his counterparts at the Cut dedicated an entire article to debating how “totally kind of hot” he is.
But as it turns out, the public doesn’t care for the media’s masturbatory Beto fantasies. No matter how hard the press tries to make Beto happen, the public simply isn’t buying the notion that a privileged, pompous white guy who thinks that standing on tables and talking about rock makes him relatable is the next Obama.
Buttigieg (blue) is now beating Beto (red) in Google searches pic.twitter.com/OVFG3mF7Lk
— Patrick Ruffini (@PatrickRuffini) March 27, 2019
Buttigieg hasn’t had even a hint of the media-inflation that Beto has received, yet his actual progressive credentials, combined with his tempered Midwestern demeanor, has helped a mayor from the 299th largest city in the country catapult to third place in Iowa.
He doesn’t rave about Trump, but he does propose actual policy. He’s openly gay yet wants to make peace with Chick-fil-A. His political experience may be limited, but as a veteran, he already has a head start over half of his competitors. It’s not hard to imagine him calmly owning President Trump on a debate stage with a smile and throwaway references to Rawls and Rousseau.
Plus, the evidence seems to hint that the Buttigieg boost is more than just hype.
Per https://t.co/jHk0e1EAF0, Elizabeth Warren has gotten 5x more media coverage than Pete Buttigieg over the past 30 days, but Pete Buttigieg has gotten 1.3x more Google search traffic. pic.twitter.com/mEHVnHx52o
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) March 25, 2019
As I’ve long maintained, Obama is a person, not a formula, and Democrats would be wise to avoid the trap of trying to outright replicate his coalition in a candidate. But if they were looking for a relative neophyte bolstered by authentic charisma, intellect, and policy chops as the dark horse of the race to bet on, it’s hard to see why they wouldn’t rally around Buttigieg instead of Beto.
