During the 2020 presidential primary, candidate Joe Biden released a video savaging former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg for his lack of competence and relevant experience for the White House. Over and over again, Biden’s video highlighted how the onetime Democratic mayor of South Bend accomplished little, mostly making cosmetic changes to the small, slightly run-down Midwestern city where he had grown up.
The video was removed after Biden won the 2020 election and named Buttigieg secretary of transportation, a position he still holds. But that old video is highly relevant given recent events.
BIDEN’S POTEMKIN TRIP TO THE SOUTHERN BORDER
Remember this Biden attack ad on Pete and his lack of experience from February?
It disappeared from Biden’s YouTube and Twitter the past few days. pic.twitter.com/f1e0NSbZJ5— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) December 16, 2020
For the past two years, the United States has been lurching from one transportation crisis to the next, and Biden’s man in charge of transportation is as feeble as ever. The supply chain crises and threats of a railroad strike were bad enough. But they have given way to mass flight delays and cancelations. One airline, Southwest, completely melted down over the holidays due to the malfunctions of its sclerotic computers. Buttigieg waxed indignant and demanded that the airline get its house in order. But nemesis follows hubris, and Buttigieg’s accusations of incompetence against the airline rebounded on him a few days later when his own computer system at the Federal Aviation Administration caused even worse flight delays and cancellations across all airlines.
Where is the secretary of transportation amid all this? Buttigieg has spent his tenure not solving problems but sucking up to various Democratic constituencies in the hope that he can become president someday despite his shaky record on racial issues as mayor, for which Biden also attacked him in 2020.
Buttigieg has been spotted from time to time. He has broken cover, for example, to take parental leave, to obsess over “racist roads,” to hanker after inclusive language in aviation, and to muse over such issues as “LGBTQI+ visibility” that are irrelevant to transportation.
Meanwhile, the nation’s transportation infrastructure under his charge has plunged into chaos. He is usually nowhere to be found. During his controversial leave from the position he sought, he avoided meetings with members of Congress despite claiming he would be “available 24/7.” It seems as though there is a pattern — if there is a cheap cosmetic move he can make to garner attention, he’s there, but if he’s needed to do something substantive, he is AWOL.
Biden’s spokeswoman, Karine Jean-Pierre, recently said the president has not lost confidence in Buttigieg, but perhaps it’s time he did. The removal of the video is a clear sign that somebody in Bidenworld has noticed what’s going on and understands the significance.
Please, put poor Pete out to pasture and find someone who is up to the role he is supposed to be filling.
