A Critique of Pete Buttigieg

A recent article in SLATE criticized Pete Buttigieg in a beguilingly diagonal manner -- through a close reading of the Graham Greene novel, THE QUIET AMERICAN.

Buttigieg is the mayor of South Bend, Indiana. A more important fact about him, for all those of my readers not residents of South Bend, is that he is running to be President of the United States, part of the vast array of Democratic candidates doing that.

The position of Mayor of South Bend does not give one much of a track record on issues of foreign and defense policy -- not obviously more so than does the position of reality TV show host offering projects to various "celebrity apprentices." So Buttigieg has sought to burnish his credentials by telling all who would listen that he wrote a thesis as a Harvard undergraduate about Graham Greene's novel (published back in 1955) .

Not a great credential on the fact of it, although it does set him apart from the illiterate Orange Dynast. That isn't a high bar.

Anyway, Phil Hoffman, writing for SLATE, does Buttigieg the favor of taking this credential seriously, examining what Greene wrote, and what Buttigieg has claimed it means. His results are not favorable to Mayor Pete's cause.

Here is a link: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/07/pete-buttigeig-graham-greene-quiet-american.html

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