Pete Buttigieg, boy from South Bend aiming for White House

Pete Buttigieg likes to remind people that a year ago, all he had when he launched his presidential campaign were four staff, a big idea and an unknown—and unpronounceable—last name.

“There were skeptics, an awful lot of skeptics,” he said after the first round of caucuses in Iowa, where he beat Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders by a hair.

“Iowa, you have proved those skeptics wrong!” said the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana.

At 38-years-old, just three years older than the minimum age to be president, “Mayor Pete” is driven by a self-confidence that would seem excessive—arrogant, even—if he wasn’t sitting in second in polls leading up to New Hampshire’s primary yesterday, where he faces off against candidates who entered politics before he was born.

This faith in his destiny is not new: Buttigieg recalls raising his hand in high school when a teacher asked who would like to be president.

“I don’t know what it is we expect, that somebody kind of gets struck by lightning and then they turn into somebody who might become president,” he said in a recent New York Times interview.

He fully believes he can seize his moment: the representative of a new generation and the “total opposite” of President Donald Trump, he wants nothing less than to throw “Trumpism itself into the dustbin of history where it belongs” and begin a new American era.

He has no other political experience other than his eight years as mayor of the town where he was born—a town of 100,000 inhabitants—but he argues that he is the only major Democratic candidate to have served in the military. His Twitter profile begins with the phrase “Afghan veteran.”

 

Pete Buttigieg, boy from South Bend aiming for White House

Pete Buttigieg likes to remind people that a year ago, all he had when he launched his presidential campaign were four staff, a big idea and an unknownand unpronounceablelast name. There were skeptics, an awful lot of skeptics, he said after the first round of caucuses in Iowa, where he beat Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders by a hair. Iowa, you have proved those skeptics wrong! said the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana. At 38-years-old, just three years older than the minimum age to be president, Mayor Pete is driven by a self-confidence that would seem excessivearrogant, evenif he wasnt sitting in second in polls leading up to New Hampshires primary yesterday, where he faces off against candidates who entered politics before he was born. This faith in his destiny is not new: Buttigieg recalls raising his hand in high school when a teacher asked who would like to be president. I dont know what it is we expect, that somebody kind of gets struck by lightning and then they turn into somebody who might become president, he said in a recent New York Times interview. He fully believes he can seize his moment: the representative of a new generation and the total opposite of President Donald Trump, he wants nothing less than to throw Trumpism itself into the dustbin of history where it belongs and begin a new American era. He has no other political experience other than his eight years as mayor of the town where he was borna town of 100,000 inhabitantsbut he argues that he is the only major Democratic candidate to have served in the military. His Twitter profile begins with the phrase Afghan veteran.