By Ray Cardello for March 7, 2023 Season 16 / Post 41

Pete Buttigieg is a highly intelligent individual. Pete Buttigieg was a high school valedictorian, graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, and was elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Buttigieg was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at the University of Oxford. Pete Buttigieg is brilliant and one of the most inept members of the Biden Administration, ripe with ineptitude. With all of his impressive intellectual pedigree, Pete Buttigieg is remembered for his time as Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, as Pot-Hole Pete. In the true spirit of the “Peter Principle,” Pete could not handle the infrastructure of a small town, so President Joe Biden gave Pete the whole country to play with.

I listened to a debate on Mayor Pete between liberal and conservative pundits. The conservative journalist pointed to specific failures by Pete in his two years as Transportation Secretary, while the liberal claimed that Pete is maligned only because he is a potential Presidential candidate. Not that he is competent, but he is under a microscope because he is a rising star amongst Democrats. Pete is not a rising star but a shooting star, a romantic moniker given to a dying star burning out of existence.

If Pete Buttigieg is considered a front-runner for Presidential office, then that speaks volumes for the weakness of the Democrat Party. There may be fifteen to twenty qualified Republicans who may run for the Presidency in 2024. Will they primary to run against Mayor Pete? They are salivating at that scenario. Bring him on.

The failures of Pete Buttigieg have been well chronicled. Not necessarily a failure, but he thought so little of his responsibilities that he opted to take eight weeks of paternity leave when he and his partner adopted a newborn. He stumbled upon the Supply Chain Crisis and solved it by having the fleets of waiting ships move out to sea so they would be out of sight-Nothing to see here. The airline crisis of 2022 was never directly addressed by Buttigieg other than the letter he sent to Airline CEOs. There is nothing like a scathing letter to solve a problem. It did nothing. It took him a month to appear in East Palestine after the Norfolk Southern toxic chemical disaster, and he only did go after former President Trump upstaged him in Ohio. He is embroiled in a controversy about using private versus commercial jets in his government capacity. He is stonewalling Congress, investigating his abuse of expenses in his department. It is time for little Mayor Pete to grow up and own his shortfalls.

Excuses for incompetence are not justification for bad decisions or performance. This is not a case of criticizing Buttigieg because he may run for President. He has already done that and failed. This criticism is because he is in a position he is not qualified to hold. He is a prime example of failing up. He was rewarded with his role as Secretary of Transportation for falling in line in 2020, and clearing the way for Biden to win the Democrat nomination and the Presidency. Pete Buttigieg is the poster child of the Peter Principle. He has been tested, and he failed. Now we on the Right can smirk at the thought of him ever running for President, but we still have to suffer from his failures. Who is on deck when he strikes out to end his moment in the spotlight?