![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Pete Buttigieg and the Vague Webpage
[Full disclosure: I am an Independent/Unaffiliated in a closed primary state-like entity.
[I have donated to the Buttigieg, Warren, and Booker campaigns. I may donate to other Democratic candidates as I hear more from them. But not Biden, ever.]
One of the biggest complaints I hear about Pete Buttigieg is that, unlike Warren and Yang, he has not put substantive policy documents on his website. Yang's are numerous and detailed, usually the thing a political wonk like me would be rooting around in like a truffle pig, but, at the moment, they're a bad idea. Warren's are less of both, but the point still stands.
We are 18 months out from the election and at least a year from the conventions. Now is the time to listen to constituents, talk about personal backgrounds, and give general answers to the questions put forward by reporters -- including, occasionally, the answer everyone hates: "I'll have to get back to you on that."
I can already hear my fellow policy wonks calling for a tumbril to haul me away, but the fact is, this point in the campaign is about impressions. It's also about not providing ammunition for your opponents.
In the 2016 campaign, both Sanders and Clinton were in favor of a drastic raise in minimum wage to $15 per hour and $12 per hour respectively. After Clinton won the nomination, she supported the Democratic platform which went with the higher number. In fact, if I remember correctly, she'd already conceded to the higher number before the primaries were over. Her support of the $12 minimum wage became a stick to beat her with from both sides during the actual presidential campaign. The more detailed the plans now, the more likely, if the ultimate planks in the platform differ, that the opposition will use it against a candidate in the Presidential debates and advertising.
By all means, marshal the facts for the most important points. Be willing to offer a correction or an apology if a mistake is made, but outlining the five point plan with fifteen bullets per point about how to handle a problem could work against a candidate later.
There is also a class factor (and possibly an age factor) to point out. All these detailed policy documents and statements are on the internet. The internet cannot be dismissed. It's an important tool of knowledge and research (flat earther videos on YouTube notwithstanding. The horrors I've seen.). However, the poorer and/or the more rural a potential voter is the less likely that voter has internet at home -- or at least fast enough internet to prevent going to the candidates' websites from being a chore.
Obama did not poll well among the over-65s in 2008. (No, not all of them are racists.) He did better with every other age group. My father pointed out that most of the people his age that he knew did not consider going to the internet to look up information. TV news and physical newspapers were where they got their information. They resented that Obama didn't take the time to explain things more clearly during the events which would make it onto television or into the papers. (For the record, Dad and I discussed our votes and we were both for Obama in both elections. Dad also voted for Clinton in 2016.)
At this moment, Buttigieg is getting the electorate used to a male candidate with a husband. He's playing up his military service in conservative areas and his intellectual credentials in more liberal ones. He's mastered the art of vague. If he's still vague in February, he'll be defeated in the primaries, but it's better that he wait and come up with broadly appealing policies over the next few months than be tarred with the Socialist brush the Republicans are pulling out.
I don't know who the Democratic candidate will be. I will be voting for the Democratic candidate without question if Trump heads the Republican ticket. (If it's Weld versus someone I'm lukewarm about, that's another matter. It's also highly unlikely.) I'm looking forward to tonight's and tomorrow's debates.
[I have donated to the Buttigieg, Warren, and Booker campaigns. I may donate to other Democratic candidates as I hear more from them. But not Biden, ever.]
One of the biggest complaints I hear about Pete Buttigieg is that, unlike Warren and Yang, he has not put substantive policy documents on his website. Yang's are numerous and detailed, usually the thing a political wonk like me would be rooting around in like a truffle pig, but, at the moment, they're a bad idea. Warren's are less of both, but the point still stands.
We are 18 months out from the election and at least a year from the conventions. Now is the time to listen to constituents, talk about personal backgrounds, and give general answers to the questions put forward by reporters -- including, occasionally, the answer everyone hates: "I'll have to get back to you on that."
I can already hear my fellow policy wonks calling for a tumbril to haul me away, but the fact is, this point in the campaign is about impressions. It's also about not providing ammunition for your opponents.
In the 2016 campaign, both Sanders and Clinton were in favor of a drastic raise in minimum wage to $15 per hour and $12 per hour respectively. After Clinton won the nomination, she supported the Democratic platform which went with the higher number. In fact, if I remember correctly, she'd already conceded to the higher number before the primaries were over. Her support of the $12 minimum wage became a stick to beat her with from both sides during the actual presidential campaign. The more detailed the plans now, the more likely, if the ultimate planks in the platform differ, that the opposition will use it against a candidate in the Presidential debates and advertising.
By all means, marshal the facts for the most important points. Be willing to offer a correction or an apology if a mistake is made, but outlining the five point plan with fifteen bullets per point about how to handle a problem could work against a candidate later.
There is also a class factor (and possibly an age factor) to point out. All these detailed policy documents and statements are on the internet. The internet cannot be dismissed. It's an important tool of knowledge and research (flat earther videos on YouTube notwithstanding. The horrors I've seen.). However, the poorer and/or the more rural a potential voter is the less likely that voter has internet at home -- or at least fast enough internet to prevent going to the candidates' websites from being a chore.
Obama did not poll well among the over-65s in 2008. (No, not all of them are racists.) He did better with every other age group. My father pointed out that most of the people his age that he knew did not consider going to the internet to look up information. TV news and physical newspapers were where they got their information. They resented that Obama didn't take the time to explain things more clearly during the events which would make it onto television or into the papers. (For the record, Dad and I discussed our votes and we were both for Obama in both elections. Dad also voted for Clinton in 2016.)
At this moment, Buttigieg is getting the electorate used to a male candidate with a husband. He's playing up his military service in conservative areas and his intellectual credentials in more liberal ones. He's mastered the art of vague. If he's still vague in February, he'll be defeated in the primaries, but it's better that he wait and come up with broadly appealing policies over the next few months than be tarred with the Socialist brush the Republicans are pulling out.
I don't know who the Democratic candidate will be. I will be voting for the Democratic candidate without question if Trump heads the Republican ticket. (If it's Weld versus someone I'm lukewarm about, that's another matter. It's also highly unlikely.) I'm looking forward to tonight's and tomorrow's debates.