Welcome to Off Message. I'm Isaac Dover. So what's the answer to the question about whether you're

running for president? The answer to the question is I am in my seventh year as mayor, and I'm

going to announce by the end of this year if I'm running for mayor again. And this year, all of my

political energy should be going into helping other people in other states and in my state,

who I care about and who share my values.

And, you know, every really good political opportunity in my life has come as something

of a surprise.

And the most important thing I can do right now is to be a good mayor and to make myself

useful.

That's another thing that people who are going to run for president and say the most.

But it's true. Right? I mean, it's the useful. That's another thing that people who are going to run for president say the most. But it's true, right?

I mean, it's the truth.

Today's guest, Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and maybe the

unlikeliest person around that some people are taking seriously as a potential national

Democratic leader and even possible presidential candidate for 2020.

The first time I met Buttigieg

was just over a year ago when he was running for a Democratic National Committee chair. He came by

our offices at Politica to talk about what he was doing, why a 36-year-old mayor from a city

most people only know about from knowing that Notre Dame is there would think he had a shot at

winning and why he'd even want to. He had some interesting

people who were interested in him, including Obama strategist David Axelot and Howard Dean,

who'd done the DNC job himself, and said he was backing Buttigieg for a bunch of reasons,

...