Pete Buttigieg proved last night that he's not the president America wants or needs

The former mayor of South Bend came across as over-prepared and plastic at January's Democratic debate

Pete Buttigieg has learned quickly. Except for a laugh he shared with billionaire Tom Steyer toward the end of the second hour of last night’s Democratic debate, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana came across as robotic, plastic, and programmed to perfection. With every debate, his learning curve is sharply increasing; his answers better informed, more inclusive.

But since he announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination, Buttigieg has been missing something big – a proper understanding of the big picture issues facing average Americans, especially minorities. The Root’s in-house genius, Michael Harriot, said it best in his tweet last night when, referring to Buttigieg’s performance, he wrote “Pete Buttigieg: I'm just gonna fill a bulls**t balloon with words that mean nothing.”

And that’s the fundamental problem. Although the former Navy veteran can recite statistics and political and economic theory, if you listen close it’s clear that Pete Buttigieg doesn’t fundamentally understand the zigzagging of scar tissue that poverty and racism have left across the layers of American society and the economy. He does, however, understand how to turn that trauma into some nice-sounding rhetoric. Buttigieg’s undeniably articulate ability to reframe and regurgitate a middle-of-the-road approach shows that he doesn’t get what someone like Sen. Bernie Sanders has been talking about for years – that middle-of-the road solutions, no matter how you repackage them, haven’t worked for most Americans for a long time.

The precocious former mayor and unabashed millennial has certainly mastered the art of political messaging, however. His statement about his time at McKinsey & Company, the controversial subject of a New York Times investigation? “Can’t talk about it because of a non-disclosure.” His response to backlash from his campaign’s stock photo of a Kenyan woman with her son plastered on the front of his economic plan for black America? “Someone else did it.” His defense of his 2011 comments about how young black kids don’t have “anyone they know personally who testifies to the value of education”? “It didn’t reflect the totality of my understanding”. Buttigieg’s answer to Michael Harriot’s scathing piece titled, “Pete Buttigieg is a lying MF”, which was about his 2011 comments about the lack of role models for poor black kids? “I gave him [Harriot] a call”.

Last night, when asked by CNN’s Abby Phillip, the only black moderator, “Is it possible black voters have gotten to know you and have simply decided to choose another candidate?”, Buttigieg responded that he hired a member of the Congressional Black Caucus for his campaign. I can’t help but feel that’s a little like saying, “I’m not a racist because I have a black friend.” The sad truth is that 40 per cent of America actually doesn’t have a black friend. Those numbers just don’t work in 2020 — and hiring one person really doesn’t count as reckoning with structural inequality on a national scale.

Everyone knows that in the Democratic primaries you can’t afford to miss out on the votes from black and minority voters. But Buttigieg misses the mark on that core constituency. The big delegate states for Democrats, like South Carolina, have large populations of black people. And even when you factor in his campaign member from the Congressional Black Caucus and his call to Michael Harriot, I doubt Buttigieg has enough to convince black voters to support his candidacy this late in the game.

As for the critiques about Buttigieg’s age, I get it – it’s not entirely fair, but people have a point. Finland just elected the world’s youngest prime minister, 34-year-old Sanna Marin (who also happens to be a woman). France’s Emmanuel Macron was 39 when he became prime minister. Buttigieg, if he won, would be 38 when he stepped into office. But Finland has 5.5 million people and France has about 67 million people. The US has over 327 million people. Age and experience do matter when you’re talking about running the most powerful economy in the world.

The other young Rhodes scholar who would have been a much better candidate was Senator Cory Booker, who announced he was ending his presidential campaign a few days ago after failing to qualify for last night’s debate. The former mayor of Newark and current New Jersey Senator had the requisite professional and life experience to cross racial lines. Not only is Booker an experienced Senator who sits on the committees of Foreign Affairs and the Judiciary Committee, but for 16 years he chose to live in the inner-city neighborhood in Newark where he ultimately became mayor after graduating from Stanford, Yale and a stint at Oxford University. Booker chose to inform his political decisions through real-life experience and experience is something you can’t shortcut your way through, no matter impressive a Rhodes scholar you might be.