At Thursday night’s Democratic presidential debate in Los Angeles, Senator Elizabeth Warren and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg tried to money-shame each other.
Warren that “billionaires in wine caves should not pick the next president of the United States,” a reference to Buttigieg’s in a wine cellar in Napa Valley. Warren had previously to skip big-dollar fundraisers if she is her party’s nominee.
“The mayor just recently had a fund-raiser that was held in a wine cave, full of crystals and served $900-a-bottle wine,” said Warren. “Think about who comes to that. He had promised that every fund-raiser he would do would be open-door, but this one was closed-door. We made the decision many years ago that rich people in smoke-filled rooms would not pick the next president of the United States. Billionaires in wine caves should not pick the next president of the United States.”
In response, Buttigieg said that Warren’s net worth was “one hundred times” his, and that he was “literally the only person on this stage who is not a millionaire or a billionaire.” He said to Warren: “Senator, your presidential campaign right now as we speak is funded in part by money you transferred, having raised it at those exact same big-ticket fund-raisers you now denounce. Did it corrupt you, Senator? Of course not.”
The exchange was a debate highlight and #winecave went viral on Twitter. Now Buttigieg risks being dismissed as a clubby guy who caters to big donors and is out of touch with the average American. He wouldn’t be the first presidential contender who found himself unable to shake that image.
2012 Republican candidate Mitt Romney planned a for his beach home in La Jolla, California, that included a “car elevator,” a platform that would carry his automobiles between floors. It wasn’t news that Romney was a wealthy man. But “car elevator” was an irresistible shorthand for anyone out to portray the GOP candidate as ridiculously rich—a gift to the
Eight years earlier, President George W. Bush’s re-election campaign featuring Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry windsurfing off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. The voice-over said: a reference to the then-senator as a political flip-flopper. The windsurfing photo, meanwhile, reinforced detractors’ view of him as an “,” said The New York Times. Kerry lost to the incumbent Bush in 2004.
Then there was President George H.W. Bush, who appeared “amazed” at a National Grocers Association convention in 1992 over the modern marvels of grocery store scanning technology. “This is for checking out?” the elder Bush . At a time when many Americans were facing economic insecurity, the president’s apparent unfamiliarity with middle-class life was fatal. reported that it wasn’t actually an ordinary grocery scanner but a unique one that could weigh produce and scan torn barcodes, and Bush may have been merely displaying polite interest. But the impression stuck. He lost to Bill Clinton, a politician gifted at conveying that he felt voters’ pain.
It’s too early to tell whether “wine cave” will slow Buttiegieg’s momentum. A recent Iowa State University/Civiqs revealed Buttigieg as the front-runner in Iowa with 24 percent, followed by Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren at 21 percent and 18 percent respectively; that survey was conducted from December 12 to 16. Meanwhile, a NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll showed that Buttigieg in fourth place among Democratic primary voters. Buttigieg—and his opponents—will look closely at what post-hashtag polls will say.
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