Local political expert reflects on Buttigieg’s debate performance

SOUTH BEND, Ind.—Local political expert Jack Colwell was live in ABC57’s studio on Friday morning to give insight into Buttigieg’s third Democratic primary debate performance.

Colwell says that he would give Buttigieg an A- for his third debate performance.

“He certainly did far better than Secretary Castro, who probably ended up with an F but he certainly held his own. He had limited time to really make his presentation,” Colwell said.

Buttigieg spoke for about 11 minutes and 52 seconds during the third debate, which was a bit more time than Castro had.

According to Colwell, Buttigieg’s position near Senator Bernie Sanders was beneficial.

“Bernie tends to yell, which is good if he’s talking to a rally of all of his supporters but on television it doesn’t go over that well and Pete had a contrast there where he talked in a more reasoned way,” Colwell said. “He doesn’t yell. He seldom makes any mistake in talking. He really does well on the debate stage. The debates are really helping him. So do those town halls.”

Colwell thinks that of all the candidates on stage Thursday night, Senator Elizabeth Warren stood out.

“I’m not sure there was a clear winner. I think she probably did the best for her cause. I don’t know if she’s going to suddenly move up to the first place in the polls,” Colwell said.