Pete Buttigieg Senior Adviser Says Candidate Has Obama’s ‘It’ Thing

Pete Buttigieg at a campaign event in Ames, Iowa on Jan. 29.Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg
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A senior adviser to Pete Buttigieg put the former mayor in the same league as Barack Obama as a pure politician and even better at some parts of being a candidate.

“There are few people in politics it’s pretty dangerous to compare yourself to. Barack Obama is one of them. You don’t compare yourself to John F. Kennedy either but I don’t think it’s wrong to say that Pete brings a talent and that ineffable ‘it’ thing that Obama had,” senior adviser Lis Smith said Saturday.