Charlotte Alter: “There are two main types of presidential candidates: those who run on policy and those who run on personality. Buttigieg says he’s a ‘policy guy,’ but he’s definitely a personality guy. His campaign is more about who he is (young, gay, Midwestern, technocratic) and what he represents (social progress, generational change, an olive branch to ‘flyover country’) than what he’ll do if he’s President…. In a primary divided between candidates who want to fight Trump and candidates who talk about uniting the country, Buttigieg is in the latter camp. That puts him out of step with the party’s activist base, who clearly want a fighter.”

“In the end, Buttigieg’s biggest gamble is his bet that voters are sick of a divided America and hungry for reconciliation. He believes independents and moderate conservatives could get behind a happily married Christian veteran. And he may be right.”

“A Republican source told the Daily Beast that lobbyist Jack Burkman and internet troll Jacob Wohl approached him last week to try to convince him to falsely accuse Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, of engaging him sexually while he was too drunk to consent.”

“The source who spoke to The Daily Beast said Burkman and Wohl made clear that their goal was to kneecap Buttigieg’s momentum in the 2020 presidential race. The man asked to remain anonymous out of a concern that the resulting publicity might imperil his employment, and because he said Wohl and Burkman have a reputation for vindictiveness.”

“But the source provided The Daily Beast with a surreptitious audio recording of the meeting, which corroborates his account.”

Vogue: “As we pass the remains of the Studebaker factories, I ask him what he’d say to those who argue that yet another white male candidate isn’t what Democrats need in this year of all years.”

Said Buttigieg: “I’m sensitive to that. In the end, I think we just bring whatever identity we have to the table. Mine is of a young, gay, first-generation white veteran mayor.”

Washingiton Post: “At the end of a 45-minute live interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity… Trump did not elaborate on why Buttigieg is his favored candidate and didn’t have anything negative to say about the young South Bend, Ind., mayor, other than that he doubted he’d win the crowded primary.”

Said Trump: “I hope he would. I’m rooting for him, but he is not going to make it.”

Trump also called Beto O’Rourke a “fluke” and said Sen. Kamala Harris has a “little bit of a nasty wit.”

Fox News will host a town hall with Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, Politico reports, “making him the third Democrat to sit down with the network at length.”

Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace will moderate the town hall, which is set for May 19 and will be held in Claremont, N.H.

“Caught off guard by his sudden surge, Pete Buttigieg’s rivals are scrambling to find vulnerabilities and lines of attack that can be used against him,” five officials with opposing Democratic primary campaigns and Republican political groups tell NBC News.

“The situation is different than with Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden, Democrats who have long been on the national scene and were widely expected to run for president…In contrast, Buttigieg was on nobody’s radar as a serious presidential contender until a few weeks ago. As a millennial who has never held an office higher than mayor of a midsize town, his record is largely unexamined.”

John Gruber points out Pete Buttigieg’s distinct individual state branding for his presidential campaign.

“This is strong identity work. Just check out these per-state graphics, each of them hand-lettered with full credit given to the artists. This work is distinctive, attractive, and strikes me as pitch-perfect for Buttigieg’s personality and tone. It fits, which is a very hard thing to get right.”

Harry Enten: “The problem for reporters is that even the best one’s opinions about the horserace are shaped by the environment surrounding them. This is especially the case early in primaries, because polling is far less predictive than it is in general elections. The people who surround national media reporters are right in Buttigieg’s wheelhouse.”

“Buttigieg does best among wealthier Democrats…. The national media tends to live in the wealthiest areas… Buttigieg also seems to be doing his best among white Democrats… The media can have a blind spot when a Democratic candidate has a ‘diversity’ problem.”

“In some ways, the media is dealing with the opposite problem that they did in the 2016 Republican primary. The national media were then dealing with a candidate, Donald Trump, who appealed to people who were very different than the people working in the media and who they lived among. Specifically, Trump’s support came from those without college degrees.”

Playbook: ““Two days after officially entering the presidential race, Buttigieg was expecting 50 people at a Polk County meet and greet. As RSVPs rolled in, organizers moved it from a small gym at Franklin Junior High to the large gym, to an auditorium and finally moving it outside. A good thing: a stunning 1,650 people showed up in the end.l

“It isn’t just the number of people that stands out: Buttigieg has yet to staff up with organizers in Iowa, so this turnout was mostly organic. Buttigieg spoke to a progressive Iowa group in December and has visited the earlier this year but this crowd was exponentially larger.”