July 25, 2024

I'm rethinking Pete Buttigieg as Kamala's VP choice. By Hal Brown, MSW

Above: Chasten and Pete Buttigieg with adopted twins.

Of all Cabinet members it is usually the Secretary of State who is most well known. Consider Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who won the popular vote and should have become president. I doubt too many people could name many other Obama Cabinet members.

While Biden's Secretary of State Anthony Blinkin was globe trotting, here at home Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg might as well have been designated Secretary of Everything and Everywhere. He was ubiquitous. One might think he was considering running for president in 2030.

This is quite amazing for someone who went from being the two term mayor of South Bend to seeking the Democratic nomination for president in 2020 to being appointed to President Biden's Cabinet and then, as we just learned, being seriously considered to be Kamala Harris' running mate.

Now it turns out that he may very well end up as president if Kamala Harris serves two terms and he is her vice president.

From Mayor Pete to Vice President Pete to eventually become President Pete would be a career leap never achieved by a mayor. The only mayors to come close to being elected presdient were John Lindsay and Rudy Guiliani of New York.

An NPR/PBS News/Marist National Poll taken Monday asked Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, “who would you most like to see selected as the Democratic nominee for Vice President?” Tied for first place at 21% were Gretchen Whitmer and Pete Buttigieg.

This is from RawStory:

New poll reveals Democrats' top choice for Kamala Harris' running mate

Excerpt:

Across all candidates and demographics, the highest percent is 28%, which is owned by Buttigieg under the “Region” category: 28% of Democrats in the West support Buttigieg to be Harris’s vice presidential running mate.
Whitmer has the strongest polling in several categories, but removing her from the equation, assuming she refuses to join the ticket, Buttigieg is the clear top choice among those polled.

This is from Newsweek:

Pete Buttigieg's Chances of Being Kamala Harris' Running Mate Skyrocket

On the face of it Pete Buttigieg would seem to be a daring choice. While I was favoring Mark Kelly because of the optics, an astronaut married to Gabby Giffords who survived a bullet to the brain. Read: Kamala Harris doesn't scare Republicans, but Mark Kelly absolutely should.

I'd kind of dismissed Pete Buttigieg because of his being gay.

Then on rethinking this, I figure why not? Indeed, why yes ought to be the question. They are lots of yeses to tick off.

He's well known nationally and well liked and he comes across great on TV. Add to that the fact that Kamala Harris has been working with him for four years.

Perhaps the Democrats should go all in on woke and run a Black woman married to a White Jewish man and a happily married gay man with two beautiful brown-skinned twin children, Gus and Penelope. I don't know if it was an accident but People published "Pete Buttigieg's 2 Children: All About Twins Gus and Penelope" yesterday.

Let Trump and Vance try to restrain their bigotry. Let them try to attack Pete with even the slightest wiff of the stink of anti-gay prejudice.

Maybe Pete Buttigieg would be a daring choice because choosing a gay man would actually be daring Trump, Vance, and their surrogates to reveal their deep homophobic bigotry.

All we need next is for Kamala Harris to tease her announcement that Buttigieg will be her choice by announcing an endorsement by America's number one drag queen, Ru Paul. Hold on, this has already happened:

Is there a message in this (read story)?

Watch video

I can envision how Harris will announce her selection of Buttigieg. It would go something like this:

"My opponent has called me Lyn' Kamala and he had to spell it out lest someone mistake my nickname for the noble female beast, the cat lady, that brings food home for her lazy husband. Well, you are welcome to call me Lion Kamala, that's L-I-O-N without an apostrophe, and you can hear me roar today."

Of course this would be a reference to Helen Reddy's chart breaking 1971 anthem to feminism "I Am Woman."

She would go on to say "I am about to introduce the name of the next vice president of the United States. Fellow Americans, please welcome to the podium someone I have worked closely with for almost four years and come to know, admire, and respect. He is someone who is more than qualified to hold the second highest position in our great country. He is tough, smart, and compassionate."

"When he first came to national attention we had something in common. Lots of people couldn't or wouldn't pronounce my first name properly, in fact one person still thinks it is funny to mispronounce it. Like with me, the country had to learn to pronounce his last name, thus when he first came on the national scene everyone just called him 'Mayor Pete.' Here he is, the next vice president of the United States Peter Buttigieg and his husband Chasten Buttigieg."

Here's Buttigieg being interviewed today on Morning Joe.