Mayor Steve Benjamin has spent the weekend as the maitre d’ of Columbia, a situation that probably has the unholy ghost of John C. Calhoun rotating even faster on his spit in hell, Benjamin being the first African-American mayor in this city’s history. On Friday, he welcomed Beto O’Rourke to the University of South Carolina and, later on Saturday, he would introduce Senator Cory Booker at a local health center across town.
Now, though, he had come to a golf palace-cum-downtown restaurant complex called The Venue to present Mayor Pete Buttigieg, whom Benjamin knows, because he’s also the president of the United States Conference of Mayors, and who is presently picking up no little traction in the opening laps of the 2020 presidential election. Benjamin is determinedly neutral so far, which is smart, because South Carolina is vital to the nomination process, and that means he’s vital as long as he hasn’t declared a preference yet. Read more>>>