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Mark Zuckerberg Has Quietly Advised Pete Buttigieg on Campaign Hires
- mdorazio 7y agoUnfortunately, Facebook and Zuckerberg are, to me, bad enough actors at this point that this is enough to turn me off the Buttigieg campaign entirely. The last thing I want is even more Facebook influence on elections.
- not_a_cop75 7y agoUpvoted you, but as much as I hate Facebook, at least they fall into the major influence that has difficulty evading media attention. One wonders about all the big conglomerates "fundraising" for candidates and "advising" them who are not under the big spotlight, and how that could change.
- buboard 7y agoThat reaction is the entire point of the article.
- mdorazio 7y agoI’m fully aware of that and my opinion is unchanged. Anyone showing me the same data point for any other candidate would achieve the same result because to me, get in bed with Facebook = lose my support.
- buboard 7y agoWhich is kind of surprising, considering that, even though facebook gets all the bad press, Trump's megaphone is actually Twitter.
- brew19 7y agoMark and Priscilla are registered Democrats and likely support Pete. Don't see anything wrong in helping them in their personal capacity. Pete has significant support from the wealthy - his fundraising totals are disproportionately high compared to his polling currently.
- leto_ii 7y agoWell, I suspect that the help is not disinterested. Nor do I think it's done in a 'personal' capacity. How could a plutocrat like Zuckerberg possibly disentangle his private interests from those of his company?
- not_a_cop75 7y agoIndeed, how can anyone? Maybe one could build some models to counter for internal biases, but at this point that's probably the very best one could hope for.
- Finnucane 7y agoParticularly when he's clearly motivated to find a viable alternative to Liz Warren, meaning someone who will be comfortable letting the tech oligarchy have its way. Fundraising does suggest that the rich are giving up on Biden and hoping to push Mayor Pete forward. (meanwhile sidelining Booker and Harris, who are pretty well connected on Wall Street).
- morningseagulls 7y ago>Well, I suspect that the help is not disinterested. Nor do I think it's done in a 'personal' capacity. I won't quibble with the "not disinterested" bit, but what he's doing is introducing people that he knows to the Buttigieg campaign, so in that sense, it's quite personal: >Zuckerberg and Chan recommended numerous potential campaign hires, and two of them are now on staff: Eric Mayefsky, senior digital analytics adviser, and Nina Wornhoff, organizing data manager. >Mayefsky previously worked as the director of data science at Quora, a 10-year-old question-and-answer startup founded by former Facebook employees. Mayefsky worked at Facebook for almost four years starting in 2010, according to his LinkedIn profile. Wornhoff previously worked as a machine learning engineer at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and in Democratic politics in Indiana, Buttigieg’s home state.
- leto_ii 7y agoWell, of course it's personal - in the sense that it's done at a personal level, directly between individuals. My point though is that when you have Zuck's level of power and influence nothing you do can be legitimately considered separate from your business interests. Everything billionaires do w.r.t. politics should be considered in the context of their (institutional) business interests. It can't be taken in isolation. Billionaires don't just have casual private chats with old buddies. Or if they do then those buddies should not be presidential contenders...
- acollins1331 7y agoButtigieg was a fantastic candidate until he made it big earlier this year. He's been courting rich donors and shifted a lot of his positions from before. He played up the idealist early on, but after figuring out he was going to run 3rd to Liz and Bernie the whole way out, he decided to shift into the young Joe Biden lane. I've been completely turned off by his campaign during this stretch, as it's obvious he just wants to become president and will do/say whatever he needs to to make that happen.
- francisofascii 7y ago> shifted a lot of his positions from before What are some examples of this?
- adam12 7y ago"Medicare for All ... Who Want It"
- abuehrle 7y agoHis proposal has been consistent since day 1. He sees "Medicare for All" as the desired end state. "Medical for All who want it" is the glide path to get there.
- adam12 7y ago"Medicare for All Who Want It" was not his proposal from day 1. That talk started after he accepted large donations from the Healthcare Industry.
- abuehrle 7y agoHere he is in February, before officially announcing his campaign. https://ask.peteforamerica.com/K6A-udFnfq4/2878 https://ask.peteforamerica.com/K6A-udFnfq4/2878 It's worth watching the entire answer, but the relevant quote is, "In the case of Medicare for All, which is where I think we need to go, I think the way to do it, by the way, is to make some version of Medicare available on the exchanges as a sort of public option, invite people to buy into it, and if people like me are right -- if it's going to be better and more efficient -- then that's going to be a very quick pathway to Medicare for All, and if we're missing something, we'll find out the hard way and fix it." I'm interested to see any information you have showing an inconsistency, as I've been following him since probably January and have only heard him talk about this approach and implementation.
- peterwwillis 7y agoHow much of the above story is 'outrage' that the New Media Barons are doing what the Old Media Barons have always done? How much focus (and condemnation) are we sending to candidates for getting Zuckerberg's help, while tacitly accepting when they get the Koch's help?
- MengerSponge 7y agoZuckerberg aligning with Pete is not surprising. https://www.currentaffairs.org/2019/03/all-about-pete https://www.currentaffairs.org/2019/03/all-about-pete
- hijinks 7y agowell i had high hopes for him in 4-8 years.. now i'm rethinking his choices
- systematical 7y agoIs that why he's doing so well in the polls. Zucker you PR master.
- martythemaniak 7y agoTalking to Zuck is now a no-no. Cancel Culture sure is mutating fast.
- popup21 7y agoThe Kiss of Zuck. Facebook: We're not political
- einpoklum 7y agoWell, that's not the only poor advisor Buttigieg has had in his failing presidential campaign. It seems like if the mainstream media were not propping him up, he would have gone off the radar a while ago.
- buboard 7y agoHillary attacks Gabbard, Bloomberg (himself a candidate-candidate) attacks Buttigieg, Yang apparently didnt have much chance anyway ... who s left to smear so that the biden-warren fake race is complete?
- rc_mob 7y agoHuh? I can’t make heads or tails of this comment. Can you be more specific or elaborate on what you are trying to say?
- baybal2 7y agoWasn't it was said that Zuckerberg himself wanted to run as a presidential candidate in last election?
- un1cron 7y ago>Quietly This is such a trashy headline device.