No More Mr. Nice Mayor Pete

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He whacked at Warren on Medicare for All. He toasted Tulsi on Syria. He boxed with Beto on mandatory gun buybacks.

South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg made a strong pitch to moderate Democrats during Tuesday’s Democratic debate and defended the center against a bevy of attacks. In doing so, he may have helped give centrists who are hesitant about former Vice President Joe Biden a reason to give him another look.

Buttigieg’s first eye-catching exchange came with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who he slammed for refusing to say that Medicare for All would raise middle-class taxes. Even the bill’s author, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), admitted as much.

“We heard it tonight: A yes or no question that didn't get a yes or no answer,” Buttigieg said to Warren. “Your signature, senator, is to have a plan for everything — except this.”

Warren fired back that Buttigieg’s “Medicare for all who want it” plan really meant “Medicare for all who can afford it,” but she, at best, fought Buttigieg to a draw as he argued against eliminating all private health insurance. Other candidates, meanwhile, jumped in to tweak her for evading a direct answer.

READ: Warren won't say the word ‘taxes’ when she talks about Medicare for All.

The moment was arguably the first time Warren has been knocked back on her heels since the start of debate season.

A bit later, Buttigieg got some of the loudest applause of the night as he sparred with Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), a fellow military veteran, over U.S. foreign policy in Syria and the Middle East.

Buttigieg said Gabbard was “dead wrong” for her previous support for removing all U.S. troops from Syria, a move that President Trump has now made with disastrous consequences.

“The slaughter going in Syria is not a consequence of American presence. It’s a consequence of a withdrawal and a betrayal by this president of American allies and American values,” Buttigieg said, pushing back as Gabbard accused him of supporting “endless war” and a “regime change war.”

“You can put an end to endless war without embracing Donald Trump’s policy, as you’re doing,” he retorted.

Gabbard had effectively attacked other Democrats in earlier debates, but Buttigieg got the best of her — and highlighted his own military service to lend weight to his presidential campaign.

READ: Democrats can’t agree on how badly they want to screw over billionaires.

One of the tensest moments of the night came as Buttigieg argued with former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) over his calls for a mandatory assault weapons buy-back. The exchange was the culmination of weeks of increasingly personal fighting between the two.

"[Let's] not be limited by the polls and the consultants and the focus groups. Let's do what's right when we have time to do what's right," O'Rourke said, accusing Buttigieg of poll-testing his policies.

“The problem isn't the polls. The problem is the policy. And I don't need lessons from you on courage, political or personal,” Buttigieg fired back. “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 at the end of the evening, after front-runners Biden, Warren, and Sanders had sparred with one another, Buttigieg argued they were offering voters a “false choice” between a return to politics as usual and an unrealistic vision of the future.

Biden had an uneven night, fading for long stretches, struggling to give a clean answer on his son Hunter’s international work and stumbling even on some layups like his key role in passing gun control legislation in the 1990s. But he’s had other mediocre debate performances and has remained at or near the top of the polls so far, partly because other centrist Democrats have struggled to rise into the top tier of the race.

Buttigieg has a long way to go if he wants to be the Democratic nominee — he’s currently polling a distant fourth in national polls, mired in the mid-single digits behind Warren, Biden and Sanders. But while more than a half-dozen candidates have been looking to be moderates’ next choice if Biden fades in this race, Buttigieg made the best argument yet on Tuesday to get another look.

Cover: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) looks on as South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg speaks during the Democratic Presidential Debate at Otterbein University on October 15, 2019 in Westerville, Ohio. A record 12 presidential hopefuls are participating in the debate hosted by CNN and The New York Times. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)