Mayor Pete — Page 2

He did a great job on Chris Matthews this evening. 6/3/19

Matthews does lave a liking for Pete but Chris was hosting a townhall in Fresno, California so the majority of the program was questions from the audience. And not every audience member was pro Pete. A woman for example said that she had no intention on voting for a man. And Pete quickly said that he understood and he thought a woman should be in the white house now.

Rumpelstiltskin said: "Pete and South Bend have had a rough week. Hopefully people don’t use the news from Indiana and his handling in the aftermath as an excuse to dismiss his candidacy.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/south-bend-indiana-pub-shooting-one-dead-10-injured"

It's not an excuse, it's a reason. It speaks to his ability to handle a crisis and it also speaks to the relationships he has or hasn't built with the African American community in his city over the past 8 years. I've been very impressed by his thoughtfulness, intellect and command of the issues though I had concerns about him being seasoned enough to be president. This has given me pause. it's a nightmare scenario for any politician to have to handle, much less one who aspires to the highest office in the land, but what you have to handle only gets tougher the higher you go.

SmoothLover said: "I do not know if being seasoned is really a criteria any more. Look at the current President."

I don't know about you but I'd like a significant upgrade in the qualifications of the person we send to the White House in 2020. I'm not sure "well Trump wasn't seasoned so that's not important anymore" is a particularly compelling argument if I'm understanding your point correctly. In any event, I wouldn't even place lack of seasoning in the top 10 reasons, Trump is a horriible president.

He's also the ONLY candidate with any level of support who would be tested in this way. Members of Congress and even Governors running would not be forced into this spotlight. I'm not saying he shouldn't have to answer to it, that's his job, but executive management is a big part of being President, and even an imperfect handling of a crisis like this shows me he's not afraid to confront it. With the 20 other candidates (who matter), it's just a big question mark.

Updated On: 6/24/19 at 09:49 AM

I hear you guys but 2 things. 1) Some, if not most of the Democratic candidates are going to do their best to highlight the weaknesses of who they perceive as the front runner as Booker and Sanders demonstrated with their criticisms of Biden this past week. The candidates themselves are not refraining from criticisms of their rivals so I wouldn't worry too much about whether we as voters should be refraining from those discussions. and 2) Trump doesn't need anyone from the Democratic side to give him ammunition to talk sh#t about who he perceives as the biggest threat to him in the election on the democratic side. He's going to do it anyway. The stupid nicknames, the tweets from the RNC and Ronna McDaniel about this or that from 10, 20 or 30 years ago, the "hits"on FoxNews by Republican pols like Gym Jordan or Graham bringing up long debunked claims about Biden or whoever they feel is the frontrunner. It's all going to happen whether the Democrats say anything bad about each other or not. In fact, I think it's much better to get all the negative talking points about each Democratic candidate out now, deal with them and then that leaves Trump zero new things to bring up that haven't already been answered and dealt with during the primaries. I'd rather see that than a last minute thing that comes up right before the election that derails the Democratic candidate and gives them no time to deal with it. Get it all out now. As for Pete, the optics of those meetings were awful and I think the biggest issue for him is connecting with those folks on an emotional level in a way that gives them confidence he's going to take care of things. To be honest I was surprised for a guy who won re-election with 80% of the vote, there seemed to be so little trust of him from those in the room. And they are the people that know him best. He's being tested. let's see how he handles it going forward.

SmoothLover said: "Pete's numbers seem to be shrinking/"

They are He’s back to the single digits, well below the front runners. It appears that the lack of African American support is contagious, if only because people outside that demographic have decided this makes him unelectable. The pundits believe he’s a likely pick for number 2 on a ticket. It’ll be a year before I’m ready to excited with that consolation prize, especially because there’s a lot of competition for that slot.

Updated On: 7/4/19 at 01:51 PM