Skip to main content

Pete Buttigieg: Stealth Assassin

There are a few things to notice about Pete Buttigieg's verbal skill (skill that seems to be unmatched right now, unless maybe we're talking about Michelle Obama).

One thing I'll call: "I come not to praise Caesar but to bury him...." This is when you subtly do the thing you claim not to be doing. 

Buttigieg says, "There's an old parlor game where you try to find daylight between a candidate and his running mate....and we could play that all night....We could ask why Pence, an evangelical Christian, has yoked himself to a man caught with a porn star.....We could ask about the immigration policy Pence once called unconstitutional....But I think the American people really just want to talk about being sure they have adequate health care coverage...." 

It may be that some think that Americans just really want to talk about health care coverage--but, in his heart, Buttigieg knows that we are indeed interested in the Christ-loving zombie yoked to a man caught with a porn star....and Buttigieg has craftily ensured that the words "porn star" *do* pop up in his statement....

The other trick: smart re-branding. 

Asked why he thought Trump was resisting a virtual debate, Buttigieg said, "I don't know WHY Trump is afraid of a virtual debate." 

Brilliantly, Buttigieg has answered the question he *wanted* to be asked. It's he, Buttigieg, who has inserted the word "afraid." (And, of course, Buttigieg has made plain that the reason Trump is resisting the virtual debate is that he is scared.) 

Buttigieg--despite his apparent mystification--then says exactly why Trump is afraid. "He is afraid because his campaign is failing so badly. And, you know, we wouldn't be quite so worried about coronavirus protocols if Trump weren't contagious with a deadly disease.....Why would you want to appear in public, in those conditions, if you cared about other people? Maybe Trump doesn't care about other people....."

These are wonderful clips.

https://www.google.com/search?q=pete+buttigieg+fox+news&oq=pete+buttigieg+fox+news&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l7.4679j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How to Host a Baby

-You have assumed responsibility for a mewling, puking ball of life, a yellow-lab pup. He will spit his half-digested kibble all over your shoes, all over your hard-cover edition of Jennifer Haigh's novel  Faith . He will eat your tables, your chairs, your "I {Heart] Montessori" magnet, placed too low on the fridge. When you try to watch Bette Davis in  Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte , on your TV, your dog will bark through the murder-prologue, for no apparent reason. He will whimper through Lena Dunham's  Girls , such that you have to rewind several times to catch every nuance of Andrew Rannells's ad-libbing--and, still, you'll have a nagging suspicion you've missed something. Your dog will poop on the kitchen floor, in the hallway, between the tiny bars of his crate. He'll announce his wakefulness at 5 AM, 2 AM, or while you and another human are mid-coitus. All this, and you get outside, and it's: "Don't let him pee on my tulips!" When...

Josh at Five

 Joshie's project is "flexibility"; the goal is to see that a plan is just an idea, not a gospel, not a guarantee. This is difficult. Yesterday, we went to a restaurant--billed as "open," with unlocked doors--and the owner informed us of an "error in advertising." But Joshie couldn't accept the word "closed." He threw himself on the floor, then climbed on the furniture. I felt for the owner, until he nervously made a reference to "the glass windows." He imagined that my child might toss himself through a sealed window, like Mary Katherine Gallagher, or like Bruce Willis, in "Die Hard." Then--thank the Lord!--I was able to laugh. The thing that really has therapeutic value for Joshie is: a firetruck. If we are out in public, and he spots a parked truck, he wants to climb on each surface. He breathlessly alludes to the wheels, the door, the windows. If an actual fire station ("fire ocean," in Joshie's parla...

My Anniversary

 What do gay men give each other, after seven years of marriage? Tickets: Bernadette Peters, in concert. Stephen Sondheim identified BP's "Sunday in the Park" performance as one of the three or four great achievements he himself had witnessed, in musical theater history. Other actors speak of Bernadette as a teacher. Andrew Rannells has described a wish to see BP in "Follies," alone, just on a quiet afternoon, when "BP might break my heart." Victoria Clark has written about studying BP--collecting insights--in the same way the novelist Jami Attenberg has borrowed extensively from "Olive Kitteridge," by Elizabeth Strout. No one is better at seeming wounded. BP has such extraordinary access to personal pain, you feel you're overhearing a private confession. I have loved her work from my high-school years onward. My spouse allowed me to screen a clip from "A Little Night Music"; he watched from start to finish, without fidgeting or...