XPost: misc.survivalism, talk.politics.guns, alt.survival   
   XPost: alt.politics.clinton   
   From: bloom@cnn.com   
      
   CNN - promoting faggotry on an hourly basis.   
      
   Las Vegas (CNN)Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar first publicly   
   vented her chief frustration with Pete Buttigieg nine months ago   
   in a parking lot in Cresco, Iowa.   
      
   He is benefiting from male privilege and wouldn't be treated the   
   same if he were a woman, she said.   
      
   "Could we be running with less experience," Klobuchar asked   
   rhetorically of women in an interview. "I don't think so. I   
   don't think people would take us seriously."   
      
   The then-South Bend, Indiana, mayor had barely risen to national   
   attention at that point in the Democratic primary fight, but   
   that sentiment -- that Buttigieg had not paid his dues and would   
   be dismissed if he were a woman -- has gnawed at the Minnesota   
   senator ever since. And it has only grown as Buttigieg has   
   outflanked her for the moderate lane in the primary, rising to a   
   top finish in Iowa and a strong second place finish in New   
   Hampshire.   
      
   While the feeling has been obvious in previous debates -- like   
   when Klobuchar dismissed Buttigieg as a "local official" or   
   dismissively compared him to President Donald Trump by labeling   
   him the "cool newcomer" -- the senator's antipathy for Buttigieg   
   burst into plain view Wednesday night here in Las Vegas.   
      
   When Buttigieg questioned Klobuchar's inability to name the   
   President of Mexico in a recent interview, the senator shot   
   back, "Are you trying to say that I'm dumb? Or are you mocking   
   me here, Pete?"   
      
   When the former mayor slammed her for voting for Trump's Customs   
   and Border Patrol head, the senator dismissively said, "I wish   
   everyone was as perfect as you, Pete," before touting the fact   
   she was "in the arena."   
      
   And in possibly the clearest sign of their distaste for the   
   mayor, Klobuchar brushed off a Buttigieg handshake after the   
   debate, walking away from the former mayor as he looked to do   
   the customary -- albeit, awkward -- post-debate greeting.   
      
   The Klobuchar-Buttigieg clash has been brewing for months. The   
   candidates are offering voters a similar vision: Both are   
   looking to push back against the party's leftward lurch with   
   more moderate policy proposals and are making an electability   
   argument by urging the Democratic Party to remember the need to   
   win back the Midwest, an area that Trump rode to victory in 2016.   
      
   The similarities are so clear to Klobuchar aides that they often   
   grumble when Buttigieg uses similar phrases to the senator.   
      
   And a more heated clash looked inescapable after the Minnesota   
   senator finished in a surprising third in New Hampshire and   
   raised enough money in the wake of the primary to extend her   
   campaign even further than her top advisers initially believed.   
      
   But few operatives -- even those on each campaign -- believed it   
   would get as intense as it did on Wednesday night, a fact that   
   Democrats privately said stems from Klobuchar's belief that a 30-   
   something year old woman mayor from a city of 100,000 in Indiana   
   would not be taken as seriously as Buttigieg has been.   
      
   "She feels the whole thing deeply," Jess Morales Rocketto, a   
   Democratic operative and political director at the National   
   Domestic Workers Alliance, said after the debate. "It offends   
   her that they are even mentioned in the same breath."   
      
   Rocketto added: "I relate to that. I think a lot of women do."   
      
   Christina Reynolds, a top official at Emily's List, a group that   
   works to elect pro-choice women, said that with Klobuchar, "you   
   saw some pushback against a candidate who has consistently   
   argued that Washington experience either doesn't count or is the   
   wrong kind of experience."   
      
   "As someone who has gotten quite a bit done in the Senate, she's   
   got a lot to say about that," she added.   
      
   The crescendo of last night's clash was when Buttigieg took on   
   Klobuchar for being unable to name the Mexican President in an   
   interview last week.   
      
   "You're staking your candidacy on your Washington experience.   
   You're on the committee that oversees border security. You're on   
   the committee that does trade," Buttigieg said. "You're   
   literally in part of the committee that's overseeing these   
   things and were not able to speak to literally the first thing   
   about the politics of the country to our south."   
      
   Buttigieg, during his answer, fully turned his body to   
   Klobuchar, making clear he was taking her on -- directly.   
      
   And Klobuchar welcomed the open target.   
      
   "Are you trying to say that I'm dumb," she said. "Or are you   
   mocking me here, Pete?"   
      
   The derision reared again later in the debate when Buttigieg   
   faulted Klobuchar for voting for Kevin McAleenan, Trump's former   
   head of Customs and Border Protection -- a debate that got   
   directly to the heart of Buttigieg and Klobuchar's feud.   
      
   The mayor made the debate about Washington experience and   
   Klobuchar's need to own up to her record.   
      
   "If you're going to run on your record in Washington," he said,   
   "then you've got to own those votes, especially when it comes to   
   immigration. ... You voted to make English the national   
   language. Do you know what message that sends in as multilingual   
   a state as Nevada to immigrants?"   
      
   Klobuchar's sarcastically shot back: "I wish everyone was as   
   perfect as you, Pete. But let me tell you what it's like to be   
   in the arena."   
      
   The line, which was greeted with audible "ohhs" from the   
   audience, crystallized Klobuchar's view of Buttigieg -- that of   
   a candidate new to politics with little experience and no record.   
      
   Voters at Buttigieg and Klobuchar events in New Hampshire and   
   Nevada have told CNN that they are deciding between both   
   Democrats, especially as former Vice President Joe Biden's level   
   of support has fallen in recent weeks.   
      
   But what the clash on Wednesday night's debate stage made even   
   clearer was the animosity between the two candidates --   
   something that did not subside once the either left the debate   
   stage.   
      
   When Buttigieg was asked after the debate about his frequent   
   exchanges with Klobuchar, the former mayor looked to deflect.   
      
   "I don't know where that comment came from," Buttigieg said of   
   Klobuchar suggesting he thinks he is perfect. "I am far from   
   perfect.   
      
   journalists remind me, politically speaking, I'm far from   
   perfect every day."   
      
   But then he went back at Klobuchar: "If you are running on your   
   experience in Washington, you should be prepared to defend the   
   decisions you made and the votes that you took in Washington."   
      
   Klobuchar seethed even deeper after the debate.   
      
   After lamenting that the debate didn't focus enough on Trump --   
   "I hope in another debate, that we remember who's out there,"   
   she said -- the senator couldn't let a question about Buttigieg   
   go unanswered.   
      
   "I made very clear that I think that we need someone leading the   
   ticket that's actually won," she said as she made her way out of   
   the debate venue. "And he ran for DNC chair and he lost, and he   
   ran a statewide in the state of Indiana and he lost by over 20   
   points."   
      
   It's "going to be up to the voters of Nevada," she continued,   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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