Clyde wrote:I dunno, man, this part is pretty damning:To be sure, offering health care to workers is a complicated arrangement for employers, particularly small ones just getting off the ground. Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, was unknown to the American public until recently, and as his campaign has taken off, it has been forced to rapidly expand from a handful of staffers to a full-fledged national operation.Remember: he was South Bend Mayor, not Vice President of the United States, he didn't have campaign funds set aside from previous runs for this and administration of group plans is time consuming and usually works on one month cycles with weirdly arbitrary deadlines. His campaign has scaled up quickly, I know we exist in an alternate timeline where a week is a year, but the Mayor Pete *bump* is about a month and a half old. He was a dude nobody had heard of with a goofy name before that.I'm flat out telling you, it's a disingenuous story. I'd suggest moving on.If it's still the case in six months, THAT is a story.And that's also coming from somebody who has worked on a lot of campaigns, not just another keyboard warrior.

Clyde wrote:Despite all that fundraising, he's the only major democratic candidate who isn't offering staffers health insuranceThis last piece is a little disingenuous.It's VERY hard to negotiate a plan for a small campaign. He's probably just scaled up enough to even negotiate it (about 50 is the break point). That's less on mayor Pete and more on our ridiculous, counter intuitive and irritating for profit health care system. Also: the exchange is a hellscape and all of that consumer choice doesn't matter at all when you have to navigate it. Speaking from experience here.Also, i've never worked on a campaign on the scale of a Presidential campaign but even being paid staff AT ALL is kind of crazy huge. Most people are volunteers, even if they put in 40-60 hours. That's just how our system works.

It would be great if we could just do away with having presidents.

llllllllllllllllllllllll wrote:The turn in the third paragraph of this is nicely executed. Followed instantly with the simple alternative: "Don't fall for it." And then the evidence. Concise piece of writing and a good example of ideological intervention (pushing the Overton window). Gravel's anti-imperialist politics strike at the heart of the Democratic Party, even if he's wacky in other respects. Heard him interviewed on Pod Damn America and he said his top pick for Dem candidate was the unannounced Michael Bloomberg... I was like, oh right, this guy is 98 years old and he's not tight on everything. Great on U.S. imperialism though.

This does not surprise me in the least.Will obv still vote for him if he gets the Dem nomination, but I sure hope he doesn't get it.

garthplinko wrote:I still think he's got potential to really help move the country forwardI don't understand this bit. Other than knowing multiple languages and being young and gay, he's not really saying anything as far as actual policies or even his opinions. Meanwhile Warren and Sanders are actually suggesting radical policies.

The most votes he's ever received in an election is slightly more than 8,000. In a city with around 100,000 residents. While claiming that he is trying to expand voter participation at a national level, he couldn't even get his own city to turn out in greater numbers between his two electoral victories (it actually decreased by 26 percent from 2011 to 2015).

CNN Cuomo just gave him a good 20 minutes one on one the day before Demo debates. Shady. Why him? 2% guy gifted a huge leg up. He did well though. Still didnt have an answer why he's polling 0% with black voters though. Still odd he was picked for such primo exposure. Why not Yang? He's 7th= with Pete on 2%. Yang! Vote Yang damnit!Only a matter of time before Trump refers to him as Pete Buttplug. You can't have a President named 'Pete Buttplug'. It's unpresidential!meanwhile Donnie'll tell his campaign staffers if I lose to a fag named Pete Buttplug you are all so fired.