Pete Buttigieg sure-footedly handles the first attack on his Presidential Campaign

This is how candidates in good faith forthrightly deal with the use of a phrase that some have used to take shots at them. 

The New York Times reports the following, from Pete Buttigieg’s South Bend State of the City Address in 2015:

“There is no contradiction between respecting the risks that police officers take every day in order to protect this community, and recognizing the need to overcome the biases implicit in a justice system that treats people from different backgrounds differently. We need to take both those things seriously, for the simple and profound reason that all lives matter.” 

In the last few days, there has been a stir over his use of the phrase “all lives matter,” devoid of the context in which he used the phrase – a context that explicitly recognized ”the biases implicit in a justice system that treats people from different backgrounds differently.”  

But rather than being defensive over the use of the phrase, discussing at length his support of policies that would benefit the African American community and his connections to the African American community, and explaining his intent and the context in which he used it (the typical and understandable approach most politicians would take), Buttigieg directly addressed the impact of the use of the phrase, telling reporters at the National Action Network conference the following:

“At that time, I was talking about a lot of issues around racial reconciliation in our community. What I did not understand at that time, was that phrase, just early into mid-2015, was coming to be viewed as a sort of counter-slogan to Black Lives Matter. And so, this statement, that seems very anodyne and something that nobody could be against, actually wound up being used to devalue what the Black Lives Matter movement was telling us. . . . . That is the contribution of Black Lives Matter, and it’s a reason, since learning about how that phrase was being used to push back on that activism, I’ve stopped using it in that context.”  See, also, here. for the video of his comments.

While arguably not as big a deal, and certainly not as grand, as Barack Obama’s March 2008  "A More Perfect Union" speech about the controversies surrounding his minister, Jeremiah Wright, Buttigieg’s handling of the issue shows the same thoughtfulness and wisdom.  This was Buttigieg’s first test in handling campaign adversity.  I believe he passed the test.

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Post Script:

Republican Never-Trumper Jennifer Rubin seems to have become reborn as she covers the 2020 Democratic Party landscape.  These two articles, from April 4 and 5, are quite something:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/04/04/buttigieg-shows-how-campaign-values-evangelicals-have-only-themselves-blame/?utm_term=.d65bf08f67e0

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/04/05/five-things-stacey-abrams-pete-buttigieg-get-than-most-pols-dont/?utm_term=.e8f0855a3262

For more background, see https://davidfishback.blogspot.com/2019/03/pete-buttigieg-links-feb-and-early.html