From Infidel753:
The recent surge of interest and support for Pete Buttigieg appears to be real, if a bit overhyped. Most mainstream pundits still consider him a fringe candidate, not in the same league with the “serious” names like Biden or Warren. But I’m beginning to wonder if he might be just the man for the times.
This is not a period friendly to conventional candidates. Obama in 2008 and Trump in 2016 were both, in their own (very different) ways, outsider/insurgent candidates. Neither was expected to win his party’s nomination; both did so by beating, mainstream, conventional candidates. The smart money was on Hillary and Jeb in those races. The smart money was wrong.
In general elections, too, there is a constituency for insurgency for its own sake. These are the people who, to the bafflement of some pundits, voted for both Obama and Trump.