My heart is very heavy. Mayor Pete has suspended his presidential bid.
I was sitting in a movie theater scrolling through Twitter and there it was, the announcement. A web search had to be done because I couldn’t believe it to be true. As I confirmed the news, it actually felt like I had lost a close friend, had a dream dashed, an unexpected shock. I almost started to cry right then and there.
For the first time, even more than with Barack Obama, Mayor Pete touched my heart and my soul!
As a non-millionaire, a Mid-westerner, a man of faith, and a family man, he is one of us. Mayor Pete empathized with all of us, even the communities that seemed to shun him. He thought outside the box, was unflappable, and truly wants to unite the country. Seeing where we are as a society, he had the wisdom to think about the day after 45 leaves office—a what then.
What will he do now?
Will he continue to look to the future, see who can lead the country honestly and with integrity, and discover who has a plan for making us the shining light to the world while helping the common person?
Or will he look to the status quo, someone stuck in the past, someone who people see as safe, someone who still thinks we use record players in our homes.
Or will he look to someone who believes they are leading a revolution, but is not delivering the goods. Who acts more and more each day as 45 (see my post “Bernie and the Trump Playbook“), who seems to be a bitter old man because life didn’t treat him fairly before. Someone who seems to want to take us all into the abyss to get even with the Democratic Party, with fanatical followers willing to do just that.
Personally, I want Mayor Pete to help elect the first woman president, Elizabeth Warren, by endorsing, then campaigning for her. If the two of them team up, I believe they would be unstoppable.
They are both smart, both have workable plans, both want to improve the country for all of us, both have tenacity and grit, both are underdogs (and one should never underestimate an underdog), and both care deeply for the down-trodden and poor among us. Both see the inequities around them, and the possibilities of greatness for anyone, and want to help us help ourselves.
Mayor Pete, you started a campaign to lift us up and bring us together. Continue that path by helping Senator Warren become President Warren. We need her like we need you.
A final thank you for being an example to other candidates. Hopefully other candidates will follow your lead (Mayor Bloomberg, Senator Klubachar are you listening?), and then also will then help elect a President Warren.
Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man 