So Long Butter Judge
The youngest candidate shows the most maturity by suspending his candidacy while less successful candidates like Elizabeth Warren hang on.
The very first time I dictated Pete Buttigieg’s name to Siri for a message, it translated Buttigieg as “Butter Judge.” I always thought it commendable of his senior campaign staff that they laughed with me about that. I also think it is commendable that a millennial gay mayor from South Bend, IN could go as far as he did in the race and now even Siri gets his name right.
This is the first time in half a century that the winner of the Iowa Caucus did not make it past the first month of primaries. Iowa so bungled their caucuses that they denied Buttigieg the PR win he deserved and he got overshadowed by Sanders. It is also notable that though he has won more delegates than Bloomberg, Klobucher, or Warren, he is the one dropping out while they remain.
Keep your eye on Butter Judge — he has a future in the Democratic Party. While I am thankful we won’t have to hear any more of his presidential campaign trail moral preening wherein he butchers the Bible to skewer people who actually believe it, his was a remarkable candidacy.
Gone too is Tom Steyer, a billionaire who made plenty of political consultants rich and has nothing to show for it.
Now all the major players on the presidential stage are all white men in their seventies. Hilariously, Donald Trump is the youngest.
South Carolina gave Joe Biden the victory he needed — his first-ever presidential primary win, despite multiple campaigns for the presidency. It turns out when it isn’t just a bunch of white people voting in the Democratic Party, Bernie Sanders is not that popular. Biden can and should leverage this win in South Carolina to help him in other states.
The problem is Super Tuesday is tomorrow and South Carolina was two days ago. Early voting numbers are small but significant, and places like California and Texas look to be trending towards Bernie Sanders. In the most favorable scenario for Joe Biden, assuming everything moving forward goes in his direction, Sanders is still going to lead the delegates over the next few weeks.
Biden may be able to bounce again with a victory in Florida. But Bloomberg is refusing to get out of the race. So too is Warren. At this point, Warren may be dragging down Sanders, but Bloomberg is driving down Biden.
Look for the powers that be in the Democratic Party to start pressuring Bloomberg to drop out. Given his arrogance, he might not. But if he really is opposed to Sanders, he should.
Warren might lose her home state of Massachusetts to Sanders. Her campaign has no viability right now and were she a man she’d already be dropping out. Instead, her noxious supporters are insisting that she’d have more support were she a man. They are wrong. But they are dogmatic in their belief. Warren has run a terrible campaign reeking of shallow personal belief, an obsession with what out of touch Twitter progressives think, and an opportunism that would make Frank Underwood blush.
I hesitate to mention Amy Klobuchar. She has no path forward but may stay in to keep Sanders from winning Minnesota. Her path forward is a brick wall with lettuce and a comb.
Now, today, we will await the flood of last-minute polls, most of which will not be accurate, to tell us what is happening tomorrow on Super Tuesday. What we can expect, based on prior polling, is Sanders racking up more delegates making it harder to stop him. What we can also expect is the Democrats and media declaring Biden the comeback kid and pressuring Bloomberg to get out now to stop Bernie.
About the only thing we can know for sure is the Democratic Party establishment is desperate to stop Bernie Sanders and they just might be successful.