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To me Buttigeig managed to utterly disqualify himself by being probably the worst Secretary of Transportation America has had in at least a quarter century. He essentially was AWOL for at least a quarter of his stint (though given the SecDef was also able to go AWOL for medical reasons, perhaps this was an unannounced policy of the Biden admin?) and offered the weakest possible response to any of the notable transport disasters that occured under his watch.
What policy he did managed to push seemed entirely focused on DEI rather than any actual effectivity or improvement, and in doing so he managed to deeply piss off a number of otherwise apolitcal career professionals, any number of which would be happy to offer damning soundbites to the media outlet of your choice.
The lesson here is if you get a cabinet post as a pay-off for dropping out of the primary, be like Hillary and actually get shit done (we can argue about whether the shit being done was good or bad, but no one was debating that she wasnt capable). If you pull a Pete, your career is dead.
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