I disagree, and in fact I think Bernie vs. Trump would be more favorable for the President than race-baiting Warren or Buttigieg who would be more calculating.
Buttigieg actually could be the toughest since he is less likely to make major political mistakes (i.e. Indian heritage), or come off as a angry school teach, and can emphasize his military and brief political experience, though he should get zero Christian votes, and needs to be publicly taken to the woodshed over his brazen attempts to invoke the Bible as supporting him. And the liberal media would love him, and his support of The Act, a step toward the final solution.
It is very difficult to defeat an incumbent president. In fact, it almost never happens. Two things are necessary to bring about the defeat of an incumbent: negative energy against the incumbent and positive energy for the challenger. One needs to look no farther back than 1980 to see this in action.
Let’s look at 2004. Plenty of negative energy against Bush, but Kerry had no positive energy. Fail.
2012: Obama had a ton of negative energy and his postive energy had waned substantially. But unfortunately, a wet dish rag could have generated more positive energy than the ‘severe conservative’ Mitt Romneyl.
In this election, Trump has probably more positive energy than he had in his first election, which will likely get him re-elected. There is, however, a massive amount of negative energy going his way.
The BEST shot they have to win (it’s still a long shot) is a candidate who generates positive energy. Bernie does that. He has a fervent and devoted base who are energized. This is undeniable.
Could P.P. Buttigieg gin up some phony positive energy? Maybe. But it’s nothing like Obama did and it’s not going to be anything like what Bernie has. Lieawatha? She couldn’t energize anything if you handed her live wires and a bucket of water.