Pete Buttigieg’s announcement yesterday was pretty effective. He is borrowing from the Obama playbook circa 2008: running on a standard progressive platform, but talking about his faith and going out of his way to strike a unifying, unthreatening tone, while at the same time hoping to light up the Democratic base with his youth and narrative. This is also Beto’s play. It makes a lot of sense on paper, but the question that will be answered over the next year is whether either of these candidates has the staying power and talent to pull it off.