To get a true sense of just how much of a media creation Pete Buttigieg’s campaign for president is, look no further than Michael Gerson’s latest cringe-inducing column for the Washington Post.
A word of caution: You may need a wet wipe after reading it.
“The remarkable rise of Pete Buttigieg is a tribute to the role of raw talent in presidential politics,” wrote Gerson, who no doubt knows a raw talent when he sees one. “There is little that distinguishes the former mayor of South Bend from 10,000 similar local officials — except for being a prodigy at politicking.”
Buttigieg, mind you, is polling nationally at 10%, according to the RealClearPolitics average, which puts him even behind former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who hasn’t been in a single primary debate and competed in neither the Iowa caucuses nor the New Hampshire primary.
Working himself into a sticky mess, Gerson continued to say that “by any measure of public or private character,” Buttigieg is “the president’s demonstrated superior.”
He then went on to pose that corny question liberals in the media obsess over. “Which human being would you, as a parent, want your son or daughter to grow up to be like?” wrote Gerson. “The question answers itself.” (Why do liberals assume that everyone’s highest aspiration for their children is for them to emulate whoever the president is? It’s the weakest, most narrow-minded view of what parenthood should be, outside of whatever it is Honey Boo Boo’s mom did.)
The truth is that Buttigieg is only where he is, and that’s not far, because the national media have put their weight behind a humdrum candidate whose sense of novelty lies in that he’s an unscary gay man, who happens to speak openly about believing in God.
Gerson’s own publication arguably started the buzz, profiling him as far back as January 2019, questioning whether Buttigieg would be “the first Millennial president” while inexplicably referring to him as “the wunderkind.”
He doesn’t give an exciting speech, his policy proposals are nearly indistinguishable from every other Democrat running for president, and, most devastating of all, his support among black voters sits firmly at close to 0%.
The 7-point drop in black voter turnout between 2012 and 2016 was probably catastrophic to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Imagine what another 10-point drop will do to the nominee if it were Buttigieg.
The former mayor of Whoville tied for first in the Iowa caucuses, and he will likely do well again Tuesday in New Hampshire. But there’s no clear winning strategy for his campaign thereafter when it comes to the South Carolina and Nevada contests, where the electorate is more ethnically diverse and where Buttigieg is polling in a distant fifth place for both states.
Buttigieg’s “remarkable rise” isn’t real. It’s dreamed up by people like Gerson.
