Tuesday 23 April 2019

President-Mayor Pete?

In the past month, I've watched probably a dozen news pieces which 'fawned-over' "Mayor-Pete” Buttigieg.  The thing that gets me is the resume.

He's 37 years old.  After college ended in 2007, he went to work for a consulting company (McKinsey and Company), and stayed there until 2010.  During recent years, he had a couple of deployments as part of the Naval Reserve.

His chief resume block is Mayor of South Bend since 2011, a town of 102,000. 

For the record, South Bend hit absolute maximum on population around 1960, and every decade since then....lost a fair number of residents.  Some say around 2010 (fifty years into this spiral), they finally hit rock bottom with 101,000, and today are near 103,000.

The fact that Chicago is 50 miles away?  In some ways, I think the past two decades have been a plus-up because if you worked in Chicago.....you could live in the shadow of South Bend, and be happy with the limited crime and troubles that Chicago has. 

So what 'Mayor-Pete has is an six year period of education, some years in the Naval Reserve, one commercial company, and eight years as a mayor.  That's it.  It's a basic eight-line resume. 

The thing is....people in Iowa like this kind of stuff.  So 'Mayor-Pete' could roll into Iowa....shock Bernie and Joe, and suddenly get some 'lift'. 

The claim to being the first gay President?  Well....no.  James Buchanan comes up, and probably qualifies along that line. 

If 'Mayor-Pete' had another dozen years, to be a state governor, and a Cabinet Secretary?  I think it'd help.  If you were looking for someone with a shorter resume than Bernie, then 'Mayor-Pete' is the guy.