Buttigieg Drawing Republican Fire As He Kicks Off His Campaign in South Bend on Sunday, GOP Begins to Weigh in by BRIAN A
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V24, N30 Thursday, April 11, 2019 Buttigieg drawing Republican fire As he kicks off his campaign in South Bend on Sunday, GOP begins to weigh in By BRIAN A. HOWEY INDIANAPOLIS – Mayor Pete is sizzling. He’s the hottest thing in American politics these days and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Mayor Buttigieg officially launches his Democratic presidential campaign in downtown South Bend. But being “hot” nine months before the first caucuses and pri- maries can be seen as one of the first steps toward ascending power, or the proverbial flash in the pan as Herman Cain, Gary Hart, John Connally, Ross Perot and John Edwards can at- test. Unlike the aforementioned presidential Sen. Bernie Sanders, the coming Buttigieg candidacy is a wannabes, Buttigieg has yet to nudge into anything close mostly single-digit enterprise at this point. Morning Con- sult Poll on Tuesday had the national race with Joe Biden to frontrunner status. Beyond the Emerson College Iowa poll that had him at 11% and trailing only Joe Biden and Continued on page 3 Aboard the crazy train By CRAIG DUNN KOKOMO – Please forgive me but I can’t watch the news without thinking of Ozzy Osbourne. You know, “Hahahaha, aye, aye, aye aye! They’re going off the rails on a crazy train.” “Well, it’s kind of funny, because Three years ago, Repub- licans had to suffer through the I don’t think the vice president winnowing of 14-plus presidential candidates to arrive at nominee does have a problem with him, Donald Trump. It wasn’t a pretty but I think it’s helping Pete get process. We saw candidates, all good men and women, derided some notoriety by saying that for the size of their ears, their about the vice president.” beauty (or lack thereof), their veracity, their manliness, their - Second Lady Karen Pence on relatives, etc. You name it and we Mayor Buttigieg’s criticism saw it during the primary process. Donald Trump went where no man of her husband Page 2 had ventured before, utilizing a cam- to the presidential primary system. paign strategy that achieved the nomi- First, each state has their nation for him, and yet also virtually own system for awarding who gets guaranteed that the political enmity its delegates. Fifty states (and a few would not end with the Republican territories) have their own rules and Convention. guidelines that were designed to give Serious issues facing our the entity as much muscle and power country rarely received the attention as possible. Some states even design that they deserved during the 2016 their rules to put as much power as primaries because salacious mudsling- possible in the hands of the state Howey Politics Indiana ing is much more fun to cover in the party apparatus because you just WWWHowey Media, LLC press. I feel it’s safe to say that one can’t trust that democracy thingy. In 405 Massachusetts Ave., of the candidates could have pos- addition, there is no rhyme or reason Suite 300 Indianapolis, IN sessed ideas for ending our horren- to when each state holds its primary. dous national debt, finding permanent This gives outsized influence to states 46204 world peace, eradicating hunger and like Iowa, New Hampshire and South www.howeypolitics.com poverty, and curing cancer and they Carolina. would have been lost in the crowded The unintended result of Brian A. Howey, Publisher Republican presidential field or dis- this mumbo jumbo, impossible-to- Mark Schoeff Jr., Washington missed because they’d failed sixth understand primary process is to grade penmanship. place an inordinate amount of politi- Cam Carter, copy editor Why is it that the Repub- Joel Weyrauch, copy editor lican Party suffered through the Mary Lou Howey, Editor mess of the 2016 primaries and Jacob Curry, Statehouse now Democrats are going down Jack Howey, editor emeritus that same ugly path? Let’s not blame the me- dia. They only serve up what we Subscriptions want to see. Let’s not blame the HPI, HPI Daily Wire $599 political parties. They only reflect the wishes of their members. No, HPI Weekly, $350 the blame for a primary process Ray Volpe, Account Manager that leaves more questions than 317.602.3620 answers rests fully with you and email: [email protected] me. Vox populi is who we should blame. We generally get the can- didates and the government that Contact HPI we deserve. cal power in the hands of the most [email protected] In retrospect, the Repub- extreme wings of each political party. Howey’s cell: 317.506.0883 lican primary campaign waged by The reality of the primary system is Donald Trump in 2016 was brilliant. It that the most conservative voters in Washington: 202.256.5822 may have taken a ruthless cynic like the Republican Party generally control Business Office: 317.602.3620 Corey Lewandowski to design a strat- the outcome of its primary process egy to put tons of money, an atten- and the most liberal elements carry © 2019, Howey Politics tion grabbing egotist, the fears of the outsized weight for Democrats. Indiana. All rights reserved. Republican primary voter and the GOP In a primary campaign that primary rules into a big cauldron in has more than four or five candidates, Photocopying, Internet forward- order to serve up Donald Trump to the if a candidate can garner a solid 35% ing, faxing or reproducing in delegates at the Republican Conven- of the vote, week in and week out, any form, whole or part, is a tion in Cleveland. then they are going to win the nomi- violation of federal law without In a two- or three-candidate nation. It makes no difference if 65% permission from the publisher. primary election campaign, the vot- of your party did not have the winning ers generally get a candidate that a candidate as a first choice, the 35% majority of voters like. This is how it guy wins it all going away. would work in a perfect world. But Politics used to be about reality smacks you square in the face tailoring your message to appeal to like a Trump one-liner when it comes as broad of a base of voters as pos- Page 3 sible. While reaching “50%-of-the-vote-plus-one” is still themselves Democrats who, for a variety of reasons, have the ultimate general-election goal, the primary system can failed to successfully participate in the American economy. present big rewards to a .350 hitter. Doubt my math? At Whether they failed to get an education or a skill, chose the end of the first four caucus/primaries in 2016, Donald the wrong education or skill, are underemployed, lazy or Trump had received 24, 35, 33 and 46%, respectively, of drug-addled, they have embraced the concept of taking the votes cast and yet he won 82 of the 133 delegates money from one group of people and giving that money awarded. and benefits to themselves. Hey, we all liked the Robin Even the 11-state Super Tuesday primaries Hood story as kids didn’t we? The detritus of the capitalist could not alter the math. Trump failed to win 50% of the system are desperately looking for the candidate who will vote in any state, averaging just 34% of the vote, and yet give them the biggest pile of free stuff and the Democratic he won 56% of the delegates awarded. By the time small candidates are vying for the title of socialist-in-chief. results and dismal fundraising had reduced the field of 14 There is another huge block of Democratic votes candidates (who started the horse race in the winter of belonging to those who think a woman’s right to choose 2015) to just three as the field made the final turn and extends to pulling a baby out of the womb and sucking started down the homestretch in Indiana, the race was its brain out. They are looking for a champion and several over. Democratic candidates are reaching out to them. I’m not saying that Donald Trump should not have There are those who want to disarm the American been the Republican candidate for president. I am just citizenry and ignore the 2nd Amendment. They want a saying that the strategy for getting the nomination in both candidate who will not rest until the American people are parties may encourage the winning candidate to adopt an at the complete mercy of a controlling government. unorthodox game plan that leads to some extremist poli- There are a significant number of Democrats cies. who think the world will end 12 years from now because Trump’s immigration strategy was excellent at of global warming and want all vestiges of a carbon helping him lock in a solid 35% of Republican voters, but footprint permanently removed, regardless of the impact the “Build the Wall!” mantra of the primaries has given our on our country or its economy. Democratic candidates are country a debilitating and unsolvable issue which has been lining up to appeal to this nonsensical twaddle. a major distraction for the Trump Administration. “Lock The ultimate winner of the Democratic nomina- her up!” received a lot of support at the polls as Trump tion for president will be happy and beaming, and then will demonized Hillary Clinton, but it also unleashed a Justice be faced with trying to convince 50%-plus-one that they Department full of Clinton supporters who made it their really didn’t mean all of that crazy garbage they spewed goal in life to “get” Donald Trump.