TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — When you fly into this summer destination, Up North in Michigan parlance, you arrive at the Cherry Capital Airport. Drive over to the shores of Grand Traverse Bay, and there's a flower bed designed to appear as three cherries hanging from a branch. And you want to take in a minor league baseball game? Well, you'll be going to see the "Pit Spitters" (the cherry logo is spitting out a baseball, not its own pit). So you'll be not at all surprised to learn that when I came to Traverse last week to chat with Pete Buttigieg for the latest episode of "On the Road," we indulged in the local delicacy. We hit the vaunted Moomers for some Cherries Moobilee — a decadent mix of cherries, chocolate and more cherries. It met the hype. That, of course, is the question hanging over Buttigieg himself: If he goes for a second Pete for President campaign — can he match the hype again? It is, Buttigieg suggested, not easy to capture lightning in a bottle twice. He'll never be a thirtysomething mayor who vaults from nowhere (no offense, Domers!) into contention. Experience, though, has its advantages. Running for president once and running a major federal agency, as he did at the Department of Transportation, has expanded his network, deepened friendships and opened his eyes to how politics works at the highest levels. That's part of his challenge, however. Buttigieg is a bit like a doctor able to diagnose himself. The last six years, combined with his native grasp and long study of the political game, present his obstacles in stark relief. One of those is whether his measured manner works in an era that rewards provocation. Buttigieg's bet seems to be that his dedication to a suite of structural reforms will elevate his candidacy — and that his party and the country crave two sorts of change. There's the substance he's promoting — expanding the Supreme Court, for example — but implicit is the break from bombast to a calm, articulate and multilingual Midwestern striver by way of Harvard and a Rhodes. It would be, to borrow the formulation of David Axelrod, one of Buttigieg's early mentors, the ultimate remedy-not-a-replica succession to Donald Trump. Whether that bet pays off is an open question — and one that shaped much of our conversation. We also discussed if he was… [TheTopNews] Read More.
2 weeks ago
