There are essentially two paths forward for Democrats, but one on the far left may alienate too many Americans to constitute progress. A middle road is more likely to bring Americans together. Two candidates can lead the nation down that road with success: Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar. . . and . . . Pete Buttigieg. . . Buttigieg emphasizes “how it’s being done” is as important as what gets done, and underscores a need to not have “some kind of equal-and-opposite meanness.” . . . in the view of The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board, Buttigieg is best suited to beat Trump because of his centrist policies, his military experience, his (admittedly small-scale) executive experience and the enthusiasm he’s inspired, with better fundraising and national polling, bigger campaign crowds and more news coverage than Klobuchar. He has shown he can manage a national campaign successfully. . .

Of the six strong Democratic candidates left, half are 77- or 78-year-old men, two are women, one of whom is 70, and then there is Buttigieg. He may have only been mayor of the fourth-largest city in Indiana, but his fresh approach is transformational. . . . At this early stage of the 2020 election, what is clear (and what fills us with hope) is that voters seem more eager to choose a moderate candidate than a progressive candidate to beat Trump. The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board, which is generally centrist and highly critical of Trump’s harsh rhetoric and evisceration of civic norms, evaluated the field this month and decided that our endorsement would go to either Buttigieg or Klobuchar. Sanders inspires passion among those who want dramatic changes but in our view is too far to the left and there are lingering concerns about his health after a heart attack. Former Vice President Joe Biden was solid in that role, but he has been an uninspiring candidate every time he’s run for president; in this cycle, he has seemed uneven and out of touch with modern America and its political climate. Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg has a strong record as a three-term mayor of America’s largest city and the ability to pump almost unlimited amounts of money into a campaign, but his late decision to join the race and sidestep the vetting that would have come with an earlier entrance gave us pause; his overdue and ultimately inadequate disavowal of discriminatory stop-and-frisk policies, combined with comments in 2008 about the value of “redlining” and in 2015 about the value of Xeroxing descriptions of “male minorities 15 to 25,” and throwing young men of color “against the wall,” gave us greater pause. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is an intellectual giant with a mountain of policy proposals, displaying a tremendous preparation for the job, but her Medicare for All proposal ultimately proved a bridge too far for us, particularly when she mishandled the rollout of the details of its cost. Sweeping changes make sense, but they must be sold to the public, not imposed. Given how strongly most Americans oppose dramatic changes in health care, Warren’s call for an end to private insurance would be a gift to Trump.

That led us to Klobuchar and Buttigieg. {Klobuchar has} experience in Washington, D.C., and a long record of bipartisanship. But a report in The New York Times that she is a demanding and “often dehumanizing” boss is troubling. And her prior career as an aggressive prosecutor is worrisome in an era when the long-term fallout from the overly harsh punishment of redeemable people has given new momentum to criminal justice reform. . . Questions about African American support have also dragged on Buttigieg. . . But the way Buttigieg addressed the fatal shooting of a black man by a white officer in his hometown during this campaign suggests he’ll approach tests directly — that he’ll show up and step up. . . . Then there’s something progressives should keep in mind: Buttigieg is running as a moderate, but he points out his “Medicare for all who want it” proposal would make him the most progressive president in 50 years. He also points out that when Democrats have been elected to the White House in that span, they have been young, first-time presidential candidates who were new to the national scene and “calling the country to its highest values.” He offers a message of hope and change when the nation needs both. His capabilities aren’t in question. . . . . he was his high school valedictorian and has multiple degrees . . . from Harvard and Oxford. He speaks seven languages besides English, and he famously taught himself Norwegian so he could read books by Erlend Loe, an author he liked. He spent three years as a consultant at McKinsey & Co. and seven months in Afghanistan as a Navy reservist, seeing time in dangerous parts of Kabul when he was mayor. In a recent Telemundo interview, Buttigieg named Mexico’s current president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, when asked to do so. Klobuchar could not. Wednesday’s latest debate saw them fighting for votes over this and other issues. She took his conventional political attacks too personally and seemed rattled while he rose to the occasion.

. . . Buttigieg’s election would be something to celebrate because it would smash a ceiling and inspire a range of people to be themselves, but his sexuality is irrelevant to this job, to any job. He is mindful it can be a minefield in politics, but it’s not a choice. He loves his husband and his country. “So much of politics is about people’s relationships with themselves,” he told The New Yorker. “You do better if you make people feel secure in who they are.”. . . Recent history and national polls show that social change can happen quickly. People who discount Buttigieg because of his sexuality are just behind the times. People who discount him because of his youth or inexperience are just behind another candidate. That can change quickly, too, as votes get counted and campaigns get suspended ahead of a convention. The way Buttigieg speaks of his decision to come out — or of any decision he has made or might make — reveals a well-reasoned, thoughtful deliberation process that would serve the White House well. That it needs such sagacity now is the understatement of all understatements.The New York Times Editorial Board asked Buttigieg how he would balance his devout Episcopalian faith with his duties as commander in chief, and he showed both his wisdom and his eloquence: “I think you have to accept the reality that you are living and working in a broken world just as we are all broken human beings and try to order your steps in a way that brings greater good than harm.”. . . .It’s time for a generational change. It’s time to make America good again. Vote Pete Buttigieg for president of the United States.