Speaking on CNN’s State-of-the-Union with Jake Tapper, 38-year-old former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg reacted to public remarks by recent Presidential Medal of Freedom winner Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh has run the nation’s most popular daytime AM radio talk show for over 30 years. Getting Buttigieg to respond, CNN’s Jake Tapper is not normalizing Buttigeig’s homosexuality, he turning off potential voters. CNN’s pro-LBGT programming leads the broadcast industry in promoting the LGBT community, giving openly gays hosts 52-year-old Anderson Cooper and 53-year-old Don Lemon primetime spots in their on-air talent, not to mention countless producers and other personnel. While that’s well-and-good, getting a U.S. presidential candidate talk about their homosexuality on national TV only harms Buttigeig’s diminishing chances.
Limbaugh did nothing wrong commenting on Buttigieg other than pointing out the obvious that the country isn’t ready for a gay president. Making news about Buttigieg’s homosexuality only harms his chances going into more conventional primaries moving forward. “They’re and there looking a Mayor Pete—a 37 [actually 38]-year-old gay guy., mayor of South Bend, loves to kiss his husband on the debate stage—and they’re saying, ‘OK. How’s this gonna look, a 37-year-old gay guy kissing his husband on stage next to Mr. Man, Donald Trump? What’s gonna happen there?’” Limbaugh said. Tapper got the red meat he wanted for his show, watching Buttigieg denounce Rush Limbaugh. Showing he’s tough, Buttigieg took the bait, saying he wouldn’t “take lectures on family values” from Rush Limbaugh or anyone else. Limbaugh was actually helping his campaign.
Tapper was the one killing Buttigieg’s chances going forward by raising a divisive issue for Democrat voters in the 2020 primaries. Tapper knows that Buttigieg has broken new ground as the first openly gay Democrat presidential candidate. He also found out the hard way in Iowa when a voter asked to take back her vote for Pete once learning that he was gay. If Mayor Pete sticks to the issues, the reasons why he’s running for president, he does well with fair-minded voters, looking for an alternative to the course political discourse over the last three years. But no, CNN’s producers and Tapper can’t see beyond their ratings, exploiting Buttigieg for their own purposes. Getting Pete to counter-attack Limbaugh only harms his campaign. If Mayor Peter ran on a platform to advance LGBT rights, he’d be polling at zero percent. As it is, he’s worked hard for his 10.6% aggregate national polling.
Buttigieg finds himself in the unenviable place of looking at bad results moving forward in the primaries. While he competed well so far, winning Iowa and a close second place to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) I New Hampshire, he’s not expected to do well from here on out. “Well, I love my husband,” Buttigieg told Tapper. “On stage, we usually just go for a hug but I love him very much. And I’m not going to take lectures on family values from the likes of Rush Limbaugh,” Buttigieg told Tapper, getting the exact dialogue wanted by CNN producers but killing Buttigieg’s campaign. Using Buttigieg to get back at Rush Limbaugh was inexcusable by CNN. Rush has his audience earned over 30-years as the top daytime AM broadcaster in the country. CNN should be so lucky, placing well back in the ratings to MSNBC and the Fox News Network. Buttiegieg should stick to campaign issues on national TV.
Instead of letting things go, Buttiegieg repeated the same mistake on Fox New Sunday with Chris Wallace. “I’m proud of my marriage,” Buttigieg told Wallace. “We should have a politics of belonging that welcomes everybody . . . I am saddened for what the Republican Party has become if they embrace that kind of homophobic rhetoric,” Buttigieg said. Buttigieg knows that Rush Limbaugh doesn’t speak for the Republican Party—he speaks only for himself. President Donald Trump set the record straight Feb. 12 telling Fox New Geraldo Rivera that he would have no problem voting for a gay presidential candidate. Buttigieg forgot to mention that taking the bait for CNN’s Tapper and Fox News’ Chris Wallace. Buttigieg’s done well so far in the Democrat primaries sticking to the issues, presenting himself in a pleasant, logical way. Raising the LGBT issues hurts his campaign.
Whatever Rush Limbaugh or anyone else says about gay issues doesn’t change the fact that the LGBT community is about 4.5% of the U.S. population. Buttigieg knows he can’t count only on that group to win the Democrat nomination, any more than former Vice President Joe Biden hopes the black community can bail him out. Buttiegieg’s appeal to all voters has been his reasonable stands on a host of mainstream issues. Getting him to respond to Limbaugh on national TV only hurt his standing with mainstream voters, not part of his LGBT community. Rush gave him some good advice to avoid the overtly affectionate displays on national TV. Getting Mayor Pete to react to Limbaugh’s remarks hurt his campaign, reminding voters that he’s an openly gay candidate. If voters sweep away his sexual orientation and listen to what he says on major campaign issues, Mayor Pete makes a lot of sense.
