Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Cerebral Buttigieg's Emotional Restraint Stands Out in Democratic Race

Associated Press

   WATERLOO, IOWA - JohnMcAnear, a 77-year-old Air Force veteran, stood in
   an audience of hundreds in suburban Des Moines with an oxygen tank at
   his side, wheezing as he implored Pete Buttigieg to protect the
   Department of Veterans Affairs.
   The Democratic presidential hopeful skipped any attempt to bond over
   their mutual military service. Instead, Buttigieg offered a list of
   proposals to fix the VA.
   Of the many ways the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is
   different from his better-known rivals, there is this: his ingrained
   emotional restraint in a show-all-tell-all era.
   ``You don't really get the warm fuzzies from him,'' said Lisa Ann
   Spilman, a retired Air Force officer who attended Buttigieg's event.
   ``But I really like how intelligent and down-to-earth he is.''

   Personal connection
   As Buttigieg, whose campaign appears better positioned organizationally
   in Iowa and financially overall than former Vice President Joe Biden's,
   attempts to climb into the top tier of Democrats, voters will be taking
   a measure of him in all ways, including whether he can make the kind of
   personal connection they have come to expect, at least since Bill
   Clinton showed he could feel their pain.
   Buttigieg chafes at being labeled an emotionless technocrat, and his
   supporters cite his intellectual agility as his main draw, particularly
   against someone like President Donald Trump, whose strained
   relationship with the truth is so frequently on display.

.