Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg has already learned one invaluable political skill -- not taking the bait, when an interviewer tries to get him to respond in kind to a quoted jibe.
Anderson Cooper did it to him early on when he quoted something that a gay Republican had said that was designed to get a rise out of Pete. Anderson repeated the quote and asked Pete what his response was:
Buttigieg: (with a one-second pause so that it did not seem canned) "Anderson, I'm not a master fisherman; but I can recognize bait. And I'm not going to take it."
The audience loved it.
He did it again, as I heard quoted by one of the news show hosts on MSNBC:
Host: "President Trump says that the country is not ready for a gay president. What do you say to the president?"
Buttigieg: "Tell him I said 'Hi.'"
I don't mean to imply that Pete runs from a fight. He simply chooses his fights. He was pretty gutsy going on Fox News and criticizing two of their biggest stars. But he wasn't there to fight with the network.
He was there to win over some of their audience. So he focused on them and their needs and concerns -- and what solutions he might have to offer them. He apparently won over at least some of them, given the standing ovation they gave him.
Ralph
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment