Chris Sikich | IndyStar

Dwight Adams, dwight.adams@indystar.com

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg had one of his most memorable debate performances Tuesday, punching up and down the field.

He took on Sen. Elizabeth Warren on health care, former Rep. Beto O'Rourke on guns and former Vice President Joe Biden on the long-term impact of President Donald Trump.

Buttigieg has been among the leaders in fundraising, but his polling figures have remained mired in the single digits. While it remains to be seen whether voters liked his performance at Tuesday's debate, he was the talk of the pundits.

Here are the takeaways:

He carved out a role as a centrist

Buttigieg made the case he can get things done in Washington, in part, by embracing reforms he thinks the majority of Americans can get behind, perhaps most notably on health care and gun control.

He was clearly trying to appeal to Democratic voters with more middle-of-the-road values and it played well among the Midwestern audience in Westerville, Ohio.

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Buttigieg began by hitting Warren on her proposal to require Medicare for everyone, saying she wouldn't answer a question about how she would pay for it.

"Your signature is to have a plan for everything ... except this!"

Buttigieg has advocated to let people either buy into Medicare or to keep their private insurance.

“I don’t think the American people are wrong when they say that what they want is a choice,” he said. “And the choice of Medicare for All Who Want It, which is affordable for everyone, because we make sure the subsidies are in place, allows you to get that health care. It’s just better than Medicare for All Whether You Want it or Not. And I don’t understand why you believe the only way to deliver affordable coverage for everyone is to obliterate private plans, kicking 150 million Americans off their insurance in four short years."

Associated Press

Warren shot back that Buttigieg's plan would leave out people who can't afford to buy into Medicare or afford private insurance.

She also delivered a line that may live on, saying she would not sign a bill into law that raises costs for the middle class.

Buttigieg wasn't done taking on his fellow Democrats. He criticized O'Rourke's proposal to confiscate assault-style weapons, which has been drawing attention since he said it at the September debate.

Buttigieg said it was clear O'Rourke doesn't know how that policy would be accomplished. He said Democrats needed to take action on issues with broader support. He indicated support for such a policy amounted to an untenable purity test that would never deliver results.

"You just made it clear you don't know how this is going to take weapons off the streets," he said. "If you can develop the plan further, I think we can have a debate on it, but we can't wait."

Buttigieg said Congress must take other steps on gun control, including an assault-style rifle ban, universal background checks and red flag laws.

O'Rourke indicated his proposal is popular but politicians won't act, to which Buttigieg shot back, "The problem isn't the polls, the problem is the policy," he said. "I don't need lessons from you on courage, political or personal.

"Everyone on this stage is determined to get something done. Everyone on this stage recognizes — or at least I thought we did — that the problem is not other Democrats who don’t agree with your particular idea of how to handle this. The problem is the National Rifle Association and their enablers in Congress, and we should be united in taking the fight to them."

Buttigieg highlighted his military experience

Buttigieg differentiated himself from the other candidates by highlighting his military experience when speaking about the withdrawal from Syria. He also used the issue to differentiate himself from Trump.

He said the U.S. intervention in Syria was not an example of an endless war but of a more strategic approach.

"The slaughter going on in Syria is not a consequence of America's presence, it's a consequence of a withdrawal and a betrayal by this president of American allies and American values," he said. "Look, I didn't think we should have gone to Iraq in the first place, I think we need to get out of Afghanistan -- but it's also the case that a small number of specialized, special operations forces and intelligence capabilities were the only thing that stood between that part of Syria and what we're seeing now, which is the beginning of a genocide and the resurgence of ISIS."

Associated Press

He also made the case the withdrawal will put troops in danger throughout the rest of the world.

"When I was deployed, I knew one of the things keeping me safe was the fact that the flag on my shoulder represented a country known to keep its word — and our allies knew it, and our enemies knew it. You take that away, you are taking away what makes America America. It makes our troops and the world a much more dangerous place."

He said U.S. soldiers are feeling ashamed for the first time.

"This president has betrayed American values, our credibility is in tatters, I will restore U.S. credibility before it is finally too late," Buttigieg said.

He said normal wasn't working

Buttigieg piped up in a debate between Biden, Warren and Sanders to say Americans were being offered a false choice. He seemed to be indicating voters could choose another candidate than the front runners.

“We’re being offered a false choice,” he said. “I don’t agree with the vice president that Trump is an aberration. I don’t believe that there is a back to normal.”

Buttigieg said normal didn’t work and that’s why Trump won.

Earlier in the debate he had said the industrial Midwest is hurting and Washington isn’t delivering on promises to fix things.

He said his father drove him to school in a Chevy Cavalier and he thought the empty factories out the windows were normal. He learned when he went to college, he said, other communities faced fewer such hardships.

"Let me tell you how this looks from the industrial Midwest where I live," he said. "Washington politicians ... saying all of the right things, offering the most elegant policy prescriptions and nothing changes."

Hannah Gaber, USA TODAY

Buttigieg wants to create a new majority

Buttigieg tried out a newer talking point for this debate. He spoke several times about creating a new majority, seeming to remind voters that they would need more than coastal progressives to win the presidency.

He may also have been trying to cast himself as a new-generation candidate, like President John F. Kennedy.

He usually coupled the phrase with a story about Trump's popularity among Midwest voters who were looking for something new but may now feel let down or betrayed.

"We are at the cusp of building a new American majority to actually do things that Congressmen and Senators have been talking about with almost no impact for my entire adult life," he said at one point.

Progressives are not happy with him

Prior to the debate, some progressives had been warning Buttigieg that attacking Sanders and Warren from the right would not be a winning strategy.

For instance, Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Institute, has been sending news releases in support of Sanders's and Warren's Medicare for All plans. In those releases and in tweets, he warned Buttigieg that taking on the progressive candidates was a mistake.

When Buttigieg did just that, reaction Tuesday was swift.

In a tweet, Green said: “A swing and a miss by @PeteButtigieg. Main takeaway is: Warren promises costs on families will go down and Pete’s core idea is rebranded “Medicare For All Who Can Afford It.”

It remains to be seen whether progressive voters will be put out by Buttigieg's strategy.

He thinks Republicans should get behind impeachment

Buttigieg has been saying impeachment should be a bipartisan effort. Tuesday, he was asked whether Democrats should even proceed given the general lack of support by the GOP.

He turned the question around.

"It’s a mistake on the part of the Republicans who enable a president who's actions are as offensive to their own supposed values as they are to the values we all share."

Buttigieg said Trump should be removed from office because if he isn’t, the message to future presidents is that they are above the law or can get away with anything.

He said he fears the country will be more vulnerable than ever when the Trump presidency ends, one way or another, with major issues left to tackle from the economy to climate change.

"I'm running to be the president who can turn the page and unify a dangerously polarized country while tackling those issues that are going to be just as urgent then as they are now."

Dwight Adams, dwight.adams@indystar.com