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Frank Bruni: Pete Buttigieg and the Parable of the Wine Cave

That was the question that electrified the Democratic debate in Los Angeles on Thursday. It was specific, referring to the location of a recent fundraiser that Pete Buttigieg had held in Napa Valley.

But it was also metaphoric, a stand-in for the wider argument among Democrats over pragmatism versus purity, compromise versus idealism, a candidate like Buttigieg or Joe Biden versus a candidate like Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders.

As Warren blasted Buttigieg for kissing up to wealthy donors — and he portrayed her as an unpractical hypocrite — they weren’t really sparring over cabernet and cash.