I'm Going To Give Pete Buttigieg a Good, Long Look For 2020

Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year old openly gay mayor of South Bend, Indiana and longshot 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, has earned huge praise for his performance at the CNN Town Hall broadcast yesterday from SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas.


The highlight of Buttigieg's night came when he was asked if his fellow Hoosier, Vice-President Mike Pence, would be an improvement over President Trump. Buttigieg indicated that he did not believe Pence was personally corrupt but then threw out this money shot. "How could he allow himself to become the cheerleader of the porn star presidency?” He added, “Is it that he stopped believing in Scripture when he started believing Donald Trump? I don't know.”


That last sentence resonated with me tremendously. This could be asked of a lot of Christian conservatives. As talk radio host and former Trump supporter Joe Walsh described of the Conservative Political Action Committee earlier this month:


Heard up on stage at #CPAC this morning: "President Trump is smarter, more decisive, & more compassionate than Jesus Christ himself!" The crowd roared. They smiled. They cheered. They got down on their knees and bowed. I was told a few women even fainted with glee.


Of course, one needn't be an Evangelical to worship at the altar of Trump. The President was practically deified when I was in a room of Jewish Trump supporters last month. Of course, it was this very kind of worship which prompted me to end my relationship with The American Spectator and begin this blog in August 2016 when publisher Bob Tyrrell told me he would not permit any criticism of Trump. That conservatives, whatever their religious background, with supposedly deep convictions could submit to easily to a con man like Trump speaks very little of their values.


At the same time, Buttigieg has also been critical of Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. While Buttigieg has not commented on her most recent anti-Semitism controversy, he did reject her comparison of Israel to Iran while appearing on The View in January. “People like me get strung up in Iran,” said Buttigieg, “So, the idea that what’s going on is equivalent is just wrong.”


Buttigieg formed an exploratory committee for the White House on January 23rd and has not formally entered the race. But last night's performance ensures he is running. While he will undoubtedly come under further scrutiny, at the moment, given my recent disappointment in Kamala Harris and my skepticism of Amy Klobuchar, I'm going to give Buttigieg a good, long look for 2020.
But first I'm going to have to learn how to pronounce his name.