I saw thie film “Official Secrets” on Tuesday. Katherine Gunn, not Chelsea Manning, but it’s very good.
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Even though his policies are… mediocre at best and frequently problematic, he’s been consistently well-spoken in the debates and comes off as both clever and humble when giving answers. And compared to the gaffe-prone Unca Joe, well… he’s refreshingly spry. By no means is he my choice. But I can absolutely see why he’s polling well.
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And a lot of people are happy to see an openly gay man getting so far as a candidate. Not all of them are LGBTQ+ either.
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That, too. He’s been leaning very hard on his image of a Christian family man who just happens to also be gay, which endears him to aunts and grandmas everywhere who want to squeeze his widdle cheeks.
I kid. I’m happy to see an LGBTQ+ candidate be so successful. It’s kind of amazing to see. This isn’t his year, and I think he’ll end up in the cabinet, but I’m glad he’s doing well on that basis.
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It is a response to a question he was asked during an interview last March. I tracked down the full interview (link below, question around 5:20). The reporter probably asked him because it was right when Manning was re-jailed and in the news, and journalists have an attention span of around 5 minutes. (It came on the tail end of a longer and more thoughtful discussion of the ban on transgender people in the military.)
If you listen to the whole interview, Buttigieg’s answer was of the vague “people entrusted with sensitive information should probably not reveal it” variety, basically dodging a question for which he was unprepared.
Pretty much all the candidates were unusually quiet on Manning last March, though Bernie has come out since with an excellent policy position on whistleblowers.
So, in answer to your question, I don’t think he meant for this to be an explicit appeal to any political group; I genuinely don’t think he expected to have to have a position on her at all.
Here’s the link: SoundCloud - Hear the world’s sounds
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Edit:
That Mayor Pete positions thing is great, as it shows you this – aka a real reason to never vote for him – in 5 seconds:
Yes, because America flushing even more money down the toilet on war-toys and nukes is soooooo progressive.
Perhaps you’ve heard of rhetorical statements. Perhaps you might note that Mayor Pete is not at all what many progressives and liberals want in this election. Perhaps many think Mayor Pete’s Mayberry schtick is just the friendly mask worn by a corporate, incrementalist donor-beloved stooge who says dumbass cotton-mouthed and lamely faux-motive stuff like “When Trump leaves office, that will be a tender moment.”
I was just laughing at the idea that you have to be a Russian to dislike Mayor Pete, because to me disliking Mayor Pete is as American as Apple Pie, Eugene Debs, Angela Davis and FDR.
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I’m typing better than Trump right now!
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The ‘moderates’ sound just like the Lib-Dem leadership in the UK. They’re only willing to form a coalition with Labour if they change their leader (We don’t know who they want, but it isn’t someone like Gordon Brown, Ed Milliband or Jeremy Corbyn.)
No requirements for the Tories though.
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Just came here to join everyone on the wagon.
FUCK YOU PETE! Take your Facebook funding and shove it up your ass.
I probably wouldn’t have voted for you, but you’ve proven your ineligibility more and more every day. I wouldn’t have thought that was possible.
I’m very much looking forward to casting my vote in the primaries.
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He’s “popular” because he’s cozied up to the big corporations and promised not to start what they see as “a socialist revolution”.
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Send him the bill for it. Her sentence begin as soon as he pays up. With his own money of course.
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I guess I also don’t understand people who judge a candidate without knowing what his policies actually are…
Yeah, but that doesn’t explain his popularity with people, though, and the corporate hit squad is just beginning to gear up to specifically take on Warren and Sanders, making all the other candidates equal favorites at this point. I think it’s as mentioned above - he’s superficially appealing (and non-threatening).
True, but one can’t underestimate the value of having a ton of corporate money to throw advertising. A familiar (non-threatening), easy to remember because you’ve seen him into a bajillion times, face can’t be undervalued.
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This! Spoken to a machinist lately? The line between that job and the fields of mechanical engineering and computer science is getting verrrry blurry. Running modern CNC machine tools requires a substantial amount of post secondary schooling. But it’s still considered a “blue collar” job.
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Welcome to a Cory post, where no hyperbole is too much in defense of lefty ideals. The ends justify the means, I guess? It’s a good one if the story and headline don’t distort the facts to the point of being completely wrong. This one is in the rhetorical ballpark, I guess. Sigh.
Buttigieg seems very much like a Lib Dem candidate to me.
That said, I suspect that most of the current Lib Dems would be willing to form a coalition with a leader who was just like Corbyn except (a) unquestionably a remainer, and (b) more credible on dealing with the party’s anti-semitism. Of course, a few elections ago the Lib Dems were closer to the Tories, but most of those guys got tossed out on their ears.
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It doesn’t seem like that phase has started yet, though.
I suspect there isn’t a lot of right flack about Pete because they are hoping he might get nominated. At that point the queer bashing will rise to Olympic standards of hate. It would be great for progressives to have a viable candidate of any flavor but Pete is not that candidate by my standards. I’m beginning to think that anyone bright enough to be a good candidate is also bright enough to never want the job.
