How do you solve a problem like Mayor Pete? [View all]

This article is spot on with how I’m feeling.

https://skylarbakerjordan.medium.com/how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-mayor-pete-8e597db981d4

As a gay man, this is something I am used to. Straight people love us when we’re useful to them — say, giving them Queer Eye makeovers or effectively refuting Republican propaganda on Fox News — but when we try to assert some autonomy or claim a bit of power for ourselves, they blanch. I hope that isn’t what is happening now, and I admit it is entirely possible I am projecting my own neuroses from growing up gay in America onto this situation. But, at this moment, that is how it feels.

Finding a position for Pete was always going to be difficult, in part because Democrats are spoilt for choice. There are just so many talented, qualified people ready to fulfil a finite number of positions. Finding somewhere for Pete to shine, that is high profile enough to appease his supporters like me, that plays to his strengths but also sharpens his skills, but that doesn’t infuriate his many detractors (such as putting him at HUD would have done — fairly or unfairly), is an unenviable task.

Whatever the case may be, and wherever Pete ends up, I know he will do the job with grace and grit, humility and tenacity, and he will do it exceedingly well. That is why I supported him for president, and it is why I am championing him now. It is also why Joe Biden — and America — needs Pete Buttigieg.