Right now, it’s hard to imagine who you could credibly call the “leader” of the Democratic Party.
No one seems to think it’s Kamala Harris. Even Kamala Harris wasn’t able to name who the leader was when she was asked by Stephen Colbert, saying she wasn’t “going to go through names because then I’m going to leave somebody out and then I’m going to hear about it.”
That’s not an answer from a leader. That’s a lame answer when she doesn’t even dare to put thoughts out there because it might offend someone.
Despite that, she is the top name in many polls when Democratic voters are asked, although not in all of them. An Emerson poll at the end of June had former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg at the top in a hypothetical primary, with 16 percent. Harris was at 13 percent and California Gov. Gavin Newsom at 12 percent. I don’t think Buttigieg did a good job as Secretary of Transportation. However, he’s a much more competent speaker than Kamala, and he’s able to enunciate concepts without getting lost in a word salad.
However, the poll revealed a big problem: Buttigieg had zero support from black voters. That’s the kiss of death for a Democratic candidate.
Bill Maher had Stephen A. Smith and Dr. Phil McGraw on his show on Friday. Maher asked about this.
LOL: Stephen A. Smith delivers a brutally simple explanation for why 0% of Black people say they would vote for Pete Buttigieg.
Bill Maher was stunned by the number.
“Black voters, zero. Zero! You don’t usually see zero anywhere. Zero’s low!”
He asked Smith to explain why this… pic.twitter.com/FGaspoTOq4
— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) August 9, 2025
“Okay, but wait. 16 percent. Black voters? Zero,” Maher queried. “Zero. You don’t usually see zero. Anywhere. Zero’s low.” People laughed at that. Maher asked Smith to explain that. Dr. Phil said Buttigieg was “under-indexing a little bit with black voters.”
“He doesn’t move us,” Smith replied, to audience laughter at how he said it.
I respect the man. I’ve interviewed him before. Very nice man, highly intelligent. But you gotta be able to move us, bro. He doesn’t move us. You can speculate as to why that is. I’m not going there. He doesn’t move us.”
Now, maybe that “you can speculate” is a reference to him being gay. However, the bottom line is that as a politician, he has no charisma. I didn’t like Bill Clinton, for example, but I could recognize he had charisma. Buttigieg is as flat in personality as Michael Dukakis, and if you don’t remember him, that’s part of the reason why.
So the Democrats have a candidate who can’t speak; a candidate who can speak, but doesn’t have support; and a hair-gelled used car salesman. And they all were terrible at their jobs. Who can pick from that?
The answer was that many poll respondents couldn’t; they didn’t pick those folks.
While the Emerson poll finds Buttigieg as the front-runner in a hypothetical matchup, the largest group of Democrats polled — 23% — were undecided about who they would choose to run for president.
That’s a big problem for Democrats, and perhaps an opportunity for Republicans to pick up some voters.
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