Mayor Pete . . . And A Couple Of Republicans

Whatever happens, it’s kind of thrilling to see Mayor Pete climb to #3 behind Biden and Bernie in the way-too-early-to-be-meaningful polls.  We have so much great talent, announced and unannounced.  I’d support virtually any of them with wild enthusiasm in a match-up against Trump.  But what makes it particularly fun for me to see Pete become known — and so well liked — is that, oh, by the way, in addition to being brilliant, brave, and effective — a Rhodes Scholar Navy counterintelligence officer back from Afghanistan who reads Norwegian and Arabic and has done a fantastic job for South Bend — his husband Chasten is a great guy, too.

To someone who grew up when the worst possible thing you could be was gay, it is just amazing and wonderful to see how for a lot of the country and the world, the prevailing response to this now is — as it ultimately was to Kennedy’s being Catholic or Obama’s being black or Clinton’s being female — “who cares?”

Mayor Pete knows how to bring people together in common purpose.  Once they had had a chance to kick the tires, South Bend voters reelected him by a margin of more than four to one (so he obviously got a lot of Republican votes, too).

And amazingly, he knows to beat “the claw game,” as you can read in this excellent Indianapolis Monthly profile.

Enjoy.

And then, yes, of course, if you want to watch a Georgia-born, Alabama-educated, conservative long-time former Republican Congressman ranting all yesterday morning, click here. And here. And here.  And that’s just for starters.  But he’s right of course.

And so was Lindsey Graham back when he called Trump unfit for office (“a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot . . . undercutting everything we stand for“) and Hillary Clinton “one of the most effective secretaries of state, greatest ambassadors for the American people that I have known in my lifetime.”

It is to cry.