Poll Reveals a New 2020 Front-Runner

Remember this poll we analyzed last week? It wasn’t a fluke. One of the most respected public opinion surveys in Iowa now shows South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg bouncing out to a clear lead in the Hawkeye State, roughly two-and-a-half months out from the first in the nation presidential caucuses. Monmouth showed Mayor Pete with a small edge, within the margin of error. Then this one dropped over the weekend:

Just posted…

Des Moines Register/CNN poll

Buttigieg 25%
Warren 16%
Biden 15%
Sanders 15%
Klobuchar 6%
Booker 3%
Gabbard 3%
Harris 3%
Steyer 3%
Yang 3%
Bloomberg 2%

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) November 17, 2019

Good news for Buttigieg: Looks like he’s now the fronrunner in Iowa.

Bad news for Buttigieg: Everyone else has fair warning to spend the next couple of months tearing him down https://t.co/2d51LVMIDu

— Rich Lowry (@RichLowry) November 17, 2019

. . .Nobody has really taken any shots at Buttigieg during the campaign, aside from the recently-departed Beto O’Rourke (who apparently doesn’t think too hard about messages on hats before he puts them on). That’s going to change. We’ve heard some whinging and griping on background about his nerdy know-it-all-ism, but he’s mostly operated in an attack-free zone. I suspect we’ll start hearing more about his inexperience managing anything beyond a small city, some of the racial flare-ups in that city, and the seemingly calculated shifts in his political image — from ‘progressive’ to ‘moderate.’ Meanwhile, he hasn’t been afraid to throw a few sharp elbows, especially at Elizabeth Warren, on the issue of healthcare. Warren has shifted her single-payer policy in recent days, rolling out a tweaked plan that would extend the transition period, delaying the coercive outlawing of private insurance (which she still supports). Buttigieg, who’s been harping on her proposal for weeks, pounced: