Does this man…
Pete Buttigieg
●
… have a shot to become president of this holy land?
Who knows?
Then again, who knew two years ago that L’il Duce would become Leader of the Free World? Crazy things can happen in American politics.
Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, has made a national name for himself, first by reviving a moribund town that as recently as 2011 was described by Time magazine as one of America’s ten dying cities. Then, this past winter, he ran a spirited campaign for Democratic National Committee chair. He appealed to such a broad base of Party members that Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti called him ” the future of the Party.” In 2015, the Washington Post dubbed him “The Most Interesting Mayor You’ve Never Heard Of.” And Frank Bruni in Sunday’s New York Times wondered if he might become “The First Gay President?”
Buttigieg (pronounced BOOT-ih-jidge, the BOOT rhyming with the word put) may be going places and today he was right here in Bloomington, sitting in a rocking chair at a meet-and-greet at a private home. He chit-chatted with a select gang of Monroe County Democratic Party veterans. He spoke of his work in revitalizing South Bend, a town that went to hell after the closing of its Studebaker auto manufacturing plant in 1967, how his admin. jump-started the rebirth of South Bend’s downtown, and his innovative urban renewal plan, “1000 Houses in 1000 Days.”
It wasn’t until the very end of the confab that former City Council member Jim Ackerman posed the Big Q: Can you tell us your plans for your political future?
Pete’s Future Digs?
●
Buttigieg proved himself a capable pol by not really answering the Big Q at all. He loves being the mayor of S.B. and political opportunities often appear out of thin air so you never know, and so on. If he wasn’t definitive re: his ambitions, his rhetoric on the problems facing President Gag’s America and some solutions for them was far more pointed.
When Buttigieg left to address the Bloomington Chamber of Commerce, the Dem sachems stood around telling each other how much they loved him and his message. One woman asked another, a dreamy look in her eyes, “How about governor?” The second woman responded, “He can do it. He is Indiana.”
I recorded Buttigieg’s meet-and-greet and will present eight minutes of it tomorrow afternoon on Big Talk during WFHB’s Daily Local News at 5. Then, Friday AM, I’ll post the entire nearly-hour-long chat right here on this global communications colossus. Meanwhile, tune in to the Daily Local News this afternoon at 5 for a few snippets from himself.
Again, who knows? One day we may look back upon the third week of June, 2017, as the time The Electron Pencil, Big Talk, and WFHB introduced the future President of the United States to Bloomington.
▲