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From:The Washington Post<email@washingtonpost.com>
To:
Subject:The Daily 202: Pete Buttigieg won the Democratic debate by emerging unscathed
Sent:Thu, 21 Nov 2019 15:58:51 +0000
If you're having trouble reading this, **click here**. Share: # Pete Buttigieg won the Democratic debate by emerging unscathed Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg chit-chat during a television break in the debate. (Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post) with Mariana Alfaro THE BIG IDEA: Amy Klobuchar questioned last week whether a woman with Pete Buttigieg’s level of experience would be on a presidential debate stage. With the two Democratic candidates standing on such a stage last night in Atlanta, NBC’s Mitchell tried to tee up fireworks between the senior senator from Minnesota and the mayor of South Bend, Ind. But Klobuchar took a pass. “Pete is qualified to be up on this stage, and I am honored to be standing next to him,” she responded. “But what I said is true. Women are held to a higher standard. Otherwise we could play a game called name your favorite female president, which we can’t do because it has all been men.” Then Klobuchar delivered the most memorable line of the night. “If you think a woman EFTA00047069 can't beat Donald Trump," she said, "Nancy Pelosi does it every single day." The crowd roared, and Buttigieg wasn't asked to respond. It was a great moment for Klobuchar, who has struggled to translate impressive debate performances into grass-roots support, but her answer also spared a relatively untested candidate who has surged in the polls from what could have become a quite uncomfortable back-and-forth. Buttigieg, an openly gay white man, is seeking to become the standard-bearer of a diverse party whose most vocal activists have increasingly embraced identity politics. The 37-year-old prepared for a barrage of intense attacks that didn’t materialize in the debate, which was hosted by The Washington Post and MSNBC. But now the presidential race will move to the backburner for the next few weeks as the national media, and many undecided Democratic voters, turn their focus back to the impeachment proceedings in Washington. The next debate doesn’t take place until Dec. 19 in Los Angeles. A similar dynamic played out with Kamala Harris. On Monday, she criticized Buttigieg for using a stock photo of a mother and child from Kenya to promote his proposal for helping black Americans. She called it a “big mistake” that suggested he’s not ready to lead our polyglot republic. “I don’t have words to describe that,” Harris said. Another moderator, NBC's Kristen Welker, brought up the topic and tried to get Harris to say more. But the junior senator from California declined. She said Buttigieg has apologized for the error, essentially letting him off the hook, and quickly pivoted to talk about her own plans to help black women. And so it went. Buttigieg has been eating Joe Biden’s lunch in Iowa, yet the former vice president chose not to come after him. Cory Booker, plainly jealous that Buttigieg has seized the mantle of generational change that he hoped to carry in 2020, noted at one point during the debate that he too was a Rhodes Scholar and previously served as a mayor of Newark before representing New Jersey in the Senate. In a subtle dig, Booker mentioned that he led “the largest city in my state.” (South Bend is the fourth-most-populous city in Indiana.) EFTA00047070 Gabbard and Buttigieg spar over military strategy and foreign policy -- The only candidate who decided to really go after Buttigieg in an aggressive way was Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, perhaps the most useful possible foil for Buttigieg who was onstage. She claimed that he wants to send U.S. troops to fight drug cartels in Mexico. “That is outlandish,” Buttigieg replied. He accused her of taking him out of context. Then he attacked Gabbard for visiting Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, which he cited as proof of her poor judgment. Earlier in the debate, after Gabbard criticized the Democratic Party for being overly interventionist, Harris ripped her for palling around with Assad and trekking to Trump Tower during the transition for a meeting with Steve Bannon amid speculation she might land a Cabinet appointment. “I think that it’s unfortunate that we have someone on the stage … who during the Obama administration spent four years full time on Fox News criticizing President Obama,” Harris said. This laid the groundwork for Buttigieg’s clapback more than an hour later. -- The debate underscored just how fluid the race remains. No one dominated this debate, including Buttigieg. The clashes were less ideological than before and more focused on electability. Former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg and former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick have taken steps to join the field because Biden has been a weaker candidate than they expected. The race has already been frozen in some important respects by the impeachment inquiry, making it harder for candidates to unveil new plans or to generate coverage for talking about anything other than President Trump’s conduct toward Ukraine. A Des Moines Register poll released over the weekend showed Buttigieg capturing the support of 25 percent of likely Democratic caucusgoers, followed by essentially a three-way tie for second place between Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, who all drew 15 percent. None of the other candidates are in double digits. But most voters say they’re not wedded to anyone. A more surprising Saint Anselm College poll released this week put Buttigieg up 10 points among likely Democratic voters in New Hampshire, as EFTA00047071 well, with 25 percent to 15 percent for both Warren and Biden, albeit with a smaller sample size. Democrats tackle impeachment, Trump and more at fifth Democratic debate -- Every candidate has distinct incentives with 75 days to go until Iowa caucuses. Because the field is so scattered, Warren, Sanders and Biden seemed more focused on promoting themselves than attacking anyone else. The senior senator from Massachusetts was barely attacked last night, certainly compared to last month's debate, possibly because her rivals see her as wounded. Some wind has been coming out of her sails as she’s struggled to detail how she’d pay for her Medicare-for-all plan without raising taxes on the middle class. Biden, celebrating his 77th birthday, struggled once again to deliver a decisive performance. One illustration of just how unsettled the race remains came when billionaire Tom Steyer accused Biden of not taking climate change seriously enough. The former vice president slammed Steyer for making millions off coal at a time when he was championing environmental legislation in the Senate. If Biden was more confident about his standing, he might have brushed off Steyer – a non-factor in this race – and merely touted his own record or plans for rejoining the Paris climate accord. -- Even though Harris didn’t attack him on Wednesday night, Buttigieg has failed thus far to make inroads with African Americans, a struggle that continues to cast a cloud over the long-term viability of his candidacy. Despite those polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, two of the whitest states in the country, Quinnipiac University’s new South Carolina survey shows Buttigieg garnering less than one percent support among black voters – raising new questions about whether he can go the distance when the nominating contest moves to the South and, if he’s the nominee, whether he’ll be able to re-activate black voters who backed Barack Obama twice but stayed home when Hillary EFTA00047072 Clinton was on the ballot in 2016. Buttigieg watched his words carefully, but he referred to being openly gay as he discussed racism. “While I do not have the experience of ever having been discriminated against because of the color of my skin, I do have the experience of sometimes feeling like a stranger in my own country,” he said. Last night, though, no one mentioned the police shooting in his city that dogged him during a previous debate. But Buttigieg touted his stewardship of South Bend. “I welcome the challenge of connecting with black voters in America who don't yet know me – and before I share what's in my plans, let me talk about what's in my heart and why this is so important,” he said. “As mayor of a city that is racially diverse and largely low-income, for eight years, I have lived and breathed the successes and struggles of a community where far too many people live with the consequences of racial inequity that has built up over centuries but been compounded by policies and decisions from within living memory.” 'Black voters are pissed off': Watch the fiery exchange between Booker and Biden Booker went after Biden, not Buttigieg, on the black vote. Perhaps because Biden actually has black support. He criticized Biden’s comments from the weekend about the dangers of legalizing marijuana as an example of how he doesn’t understand the issues affecting people of color. “I thought you might’ve been high when you said it,” Booker quipped. Biden said he wants to decriminalize marijuana. Biden then touted his support from the black community, but he mistakenly claimed that “the only black African American woman who had ever been elected to the United States Senate” supported him. “That’s not true,” Harris declared. Biden corrected himself to say that he meant “the first” black female senator supported him. The political journey of Pete Buttigieg EFTA00047073 -- Buttigieg was pressed harder by the moderators than his rivals on his relative lack of governing experience. The mayor is wrapping up his second term as the chief executive of a city with just over 100,000 residents. Mitchell noted that Buttigieg was elected mayor with fewer than 11,000 votes, and he lost by 25 points when he ran for state treasurer. He also finished third in the race to chair the Democratic National Committee just last year. “Why,” Mitchell wondered, “should Democrats take the risk of betting on you?” “Because I have the right experience to take on Donald Trump,” he answered. “In order to defeat this president, we need somebody who can go toe-to-toe who actually comes from the kinds of communities that he's been appealing to.” Buttigieg boasted that a recent Forbes magazine list showed he’s “literally the least wealthy person on this stage.” -- Buttigieg wants to position himself as the leading outsider candidate in the race, noting that his opponents onstage have served in Washington cumulatively for more than 100 years. The ongoing impeachment drama will give him an opportunity to sharpen this message, but that may resonate more in the context of a general election than a primary. Five of the 10 candidates onstage were senators who would be jurors in any impeachment trial. A sixth senator, Bennet of Colorado, didn’t qualify for the debate but continues to essentially camp out in New Hampshire as he tries to make some magic happen. The conventional wisdom among the chattering classes – and across most of the campaigns – is that the trial could become a frustrating distraction that keeps the senators away from Iowa and New Hampshire on the eve of voting. Perhaps that might become a problem if the trial really drags on. But it’s also possible that these races have become so nationalized – even in the early states – that all eyes would be on whatever's happening in the Senate. And the six senators could get a helpful platform to showcase EFTA00047074 how they’re standing up to Trump, which is undoubtedly helpful in the context of a primary. In that way, it feels like an impeachment trial could become very beneficial for lower-tier candidates like Harris and Booker who are struggling to catch a break. “I know that from the perspective of Washington what goes on in my city might look small, but frankly, where we live, the infighting on Capitol Hill is what looks small,” Buttigieg said. “The usual way of doing business in Washington is what looks small. And I believe we need to send somebody in who has a different kind of experience.” Fact-checking the November Democratic presidential debate | The Fact Checker -- More team coverage: Glenn Kessler, Sal Rizzo and Meg Kelly fact-checked 10 dubious statements made by the candidates during the debate. Matt Viser, Annie Linskey and Toluse Olorunnipa lead with the "squabble over black voters." Scherer's analysis looks at how beating Trump, rather than beating up on each other was the focus of the debate. Our liveblog rounds up all the highlights. Read the full transcript here. -- What pundits are saying: The Fix's Aaron Blake picks Buttigieg and Klobuchar as the winners, and he writes that Biden and Gabbard were the losers. CNN says Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Harris and Andrew Yang won while Biden and Steyer lost. Vox calls the debate for Buttigieg, Warren and Booker. Their loser is Biden. USA Today reports that Klobuchar, Buttigieg and Harris won while “the lower tier” lost by failing to break through. Democratic strategist Mary Anne Marsh has a counter take on Fox News: Klobuchar is her “biggest winner” while Biden and Harris are “surprise winners.” The Boston-based consultant thinks Gabbard, Buttigieg, Warren, Sanders, Booker, Steyer and Yang lost.