Doesn’t even take a rudimentary understanding of statistics (which brad does not possess) to note the declining electorate share of republicans
If Warren plays the brilliant professor, Buttigieg plays the brilliant student.
What’s new is that Warren and Buttigieg are leaning into their credentialed intellectualism rather than worrying that it will make them appear elitist. That’s exactly what Clinton’s advisers feared in the summer of 1992, when the Arkansas governor was trailing both George H. W. Bush and the businessman Ross Perot, who boasted that he was assembling a team of “Road Scholars in Washington—that’s r-o-a-d scholars, the people who are street smart and have common sense.” Clinton’s advisers responded with a biographical video, titled “The Man From Hope,” which emphasized his small-town roots and avoided mentioning that he had attended Georgetown University and Oxford. In the film’s only reference to Yale Law School, Hillary Clinton notes that Bill didn’t want to serve on the school’s law review, because he was more interested in returning to Arkansas to be a “country lawyer.”
Now a decade or two after Bush and DeLay realized that anti-intellectualism mobilizes Republicans, Warren and Buttigieg have realized that intellectualism mobilizes Democrats. Unlike Biden and Sanders, they both poll significantly better among voters with college degrees, who in recent decades have grown substantially as a share of the Democratic primary electorate. Buttigieg’s reputation for detailed, thoughtful answers—as showcased in his widely hailed CNN and Fox News town-hall events—has helped elevate him above his closest generational rival, Beto O’Rourke. And Warren’s unabashed wonkery has helped her close the gap with Sanders on the party’s left flank.
It’s likely Republicans would try to turn intellectualism into a negative for either Warren or Buttigieg. After all, the general electorate is neither as highly educated nor as favorably disposed toward higher education as Democratic primary voters. It’s a tactic that’s worked in the past. What’s harder to know is what will happen if a Democratic nominee wears these attacks as a badge of honor. To the debates over whether America is ready for a woman or a gay president, Warren and Buttigieg are adding an additional wrinkle: Is it ready for a nerd president, too?
My early take on the debate lineups. Warren should dominate the first debate. Beto and Klob could help themselves, but Warren really has no competition on that stage. Biden and Bernie got a tough draw. Pete and Harris have a huge opportunity to move up after this. Gillibrand and Yang could help themselves out with some good soundbites as well. There will be a lot of pressure on the moderators to make sure everybody gets a fair amount of time.
how do you tell varsity from JV with this bunch?
polls are tricky
Seems like a fair take. Warren is the biggest winner of the group in the draft.
Another good read on Warren and Pete.
[h=1]Braininess Is Now the Brand[/h] For a party dependent on highly educated voters, Buttigieg’s rise and Warren’s resurgence foretell the future.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/06/2020-democratic-candidates-nerdiness-good/591673/
Except I would imagine considerably fewer people will be watching her debate.
yeah, she got hosed on that deal