Some people rise to the occasion, and some rise to their level of incompetence.  For Pete Buttigieg, it’s less about rising and more about stalling — like one of his beloved electric vehicles running out of juice on a lonely stretch of Indiana highway.  The transportation secretary has achieved what few in Washington could: becoming a punchline in record time.

Remember when Democrats touted him as a “rising star”?  That’s not a political designation anymore; it’s a celestial warning.  If Pete is your star, then your party is lost in space.

A $75-Billion Failure

Let’s start with Buttigieg’s electric vehicle debacle, a fiasco so monumental that it could be used as a case study in bureaucratic ineptitude.  According to CBS’s Margaret Brennan, $75 billion in taxpayer money has produced a whopping eight — yes, eight — E.V. charging stations.  Brennan asked Buttigieg: “How is this possible?”  His response was a textbook exercise in government gobbledygook: blame the states, point to “early challenges,” and hope no one notices that the emperor is wearing no clothes — or in this case, no charging cords.

Numbers don’t lie, but Buttigieg does his best to spin them like a used car salesman hawking a lemon.  The New York Post labeled him “The Little Cabinet Secretary Who Couldn’t.”  Even Newsweek, not exactly a bastion of conservatism, ridiculed him for defending what is clearly a massive failure.  And if you think the numbers on E.V. stations are bad, wait until you hear him defend Biden’s trillion-dollar “climate investments” as a net positive.  It’s like watching someone try to sell you beachfront property in Nebraska.

Mayor of Mediocrity

Buttigieg’s disastrous tenure should surprise no one who watched him stumble as mayor of South Bend, Indiana — a reality the media largely ignored.  His administration was marked by controversies like the firing of the city’s first black police chief, which alienated portions of the community and raised serious questions about his leadership under pressure.

And then there’s the city’s much-touted “smart sewer” system.  Buttigieg has hyped it as one of his hallmark achievements, but there’s a catch: the project broke ground in 2008, when he was still tinkering with PowerPoint presentations at McKinsey, and wasn’t completed until well after he was flushed out of the Democrat presidential primary and collected his cushy Cabinet appointment.  Sure, he helped push it along, but claiming it as his own is like a movie extra demanding an Oscar for Best Picture.  It’s classic Buttigieg: slip into the frame, smile for the cameras, and bask in the credit for work someone else already started.

BS Isn’t Carbon-Neutral

If Buttigieg’s time as mayor proved anything, it’s that he excels at packaging bureaucratic buzzwords into feel-good soundbites that crumble under scrutiny.  His performance at the Department of Transportation has been not at all different.  From supply chain failures to the embarrassing lack of progress on E.V. infrastructure, his tenure has been all talk and little action.  Note to Pete: BS isn’t really carbon-neutral.

What’s Next?

As Buttigieg’s tenure at the Department of Transportation sputters to its merciful conclusion, one might hope he’d fade into obscurity.  But don’t count on it.  The diversity-obsessed denizens of Democrat politics are likely already polishing their talking points, positioning him as a “visionary” for 2028.  Never mind his dismal record; for them, style trumps substance every time.

Rather than learning from his failures, Democrats seem eager to reward them.  If the past is any indication, Buttigieg will be sold as a polished product of the technocratic elite — a man who can speak at length about problems he never solves.  Because with Pete, it’s always the same: a lot of talk, a lot of spin, and very little delivered.

Charlton Allen is an attorney with a career including his tenure as chairman, chief judicial officer, and CEO of the North Carolina Industrial Commission.  He is the founder and editor of The American Salient and hosts the Modern Federalist podcast.

Image: Pete Buttigieg.  Credit: Edward Kimmel via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.