INDIANAPOLIS — Back in 1980 while working for the Elkhart Truth, I covered a rising star congressman named David Stockman, who represented a southern Michigan district.
He was handsome, astute, Harvard-educated and cerebral, with one of my editors observing, “The genes really came together with him.” Conservative Washington Post columnist George Will became an ardent proponent of Stockman, declaring that should Ronald Reagan reach the White House, he should put Stockman in charge of the Office of Management and Budget.
That actually happened, though subsequent events collided with a sensational interview with legendary journalist William Greider in the 1981 article, “The Education of David Stockman” in which he ackowledged the inherit contradiction of Reagan’s campaign promises to raise defense spending, cut income taxes and balance the budget, all at the same time.
Stockman finally said in what had become the obvious: “None of us really understands what’s going on with all these numbers.” It famously earned Stockman a trip to President Reagan’s woodshed.
I tell this tale in the days following Pete Buttigieg’s withdrawal from the Democratic presidential race last Sunday. Mayor Pete knew the metrics, saw his path to the Democratic nomination winnow to less than a mouse hole, pulled out of the race and endorsed Joe Biden. He, too, understood how the world worked.
In tandem with U.S. Rep. James Clyburn’s endorsement of Biden the week before, these two men — a grizzled civil rights icon and the young, gay mayor — walked American Democrats off the ledge, at least for the time being. I’m referring to the suicidal traipse of the party nominating socialist Bernie Sanders, the opponent President Trump was salivating over.
Buttigieg spent the final weeks of his campaign warning that a Sanders nomination would be a down-ballot disaster. On Monday night in Dallas as Biden looked on, Pete Buttigieg explained, “There was a goal that was always much bigger than me being president. We need to win, not just win back the White House, but to win the House and Senate. And we’ve got to do it in a way that changes the toxic divisive nature of our politics. We can’t go on like this.”
Biden accepted Buttigieg’s nod, said he reminded him of his late son, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, and added, that if this happened in “another six years, I wouldn’t be standing here; Pete would be standing here and I would be endorsing Pete. Pete knows the role of the president is not just to fight, not just to win, but to heal.”
Needless to say, a President Biden will be poised to tap Mayor Pete into his cabinet.
I believe that a President Biden should be thinking big when it comes to Buttgieg’s future. Like secretary of state.
The reason I took Buttigieg’s presidential campaign seriously occurred last June at Indiana University. As former House Foreign Relations Chairman Lee Hamilton looked on, Buttigieg laid out his foreign policy views. It was a tight weave, packed with an array of poignant observations.
Buttigieg presented a five-point strategy, contrasting with President Trump, who he said, governs in a “pattern” made “impulsively, erratically, emotionally, and politically — often delivered by means of early-morning tweet — with little regard for strategy and no preparation for their long-term consequences.”
“The tasks before the next president are clear,” Buttigieg said. “First, we must put an end to endless war and refocus on future threats. Second, we must promote American values by working to reverse the rise of authoritarianism abroad. Third, we must treat climate change as the existential security challenge it is. Fourth, we must update the institutions through which we engage the world to address 21st-century challenges and opportunities.
“And fifth,” he continued, “We must do all this while involving citizens across America in a meaningful conversation about how foreign policy and national security concern their communities, and do more to include their voices and values in formulating our policies.”
“Not only must America do this in order to prosper, but the world also needs America to do these things,” Buttigieg said. “To cope with enormous change, American foreign policy for the future must be securely grounded in American values, American interests, and American relationships.”
The obstacles facing America are the “models that fly in the face of our values — from Chinese techno- authoritarianism to Russian oligarchic capitalism to anti-modern theocratic regimes in the Middle East — all present a major challenge to us,” Buttigieg explained. “And it is no accident that their hostility to shared values comes as they also present a greater threat to our interests. Ironically, at the very moment when American prestige and respect is collapsing, it has never been more needed that America lives up to the values we profess.”
With this address, Mayor Pete passed presidential muster. Throughout the 10 presidential debates this past year, Buttigieg continually displayed wisdom beyond his years, beyond his modest resume.
And it’s why a President Biden — and there’s a long road with a treacherous fight with President Trump ahead — would be wise to cast Pete Buttigieg as his secretary of state should he reach the White House.
The columnist is publisher of Howey Politics Indiana at www.howeypolitics.com and the CrossroadsReport.com. Find Howey on Facebook and Twitter @hwypol.
