He opened February by sharing victory with one of the Democratic Party's best-known figures and ended it with a humbling defeat at the hands of another. Yet Pete Buttigieg's unlikely path over the last 30 days exceeded virtually everyone's expectations of his presidential ambitions, except perhaps his own.

Pete Buttigieg has been on defense all weekend as his Democratic presidential rivals attacked him on everything from his struggle to connect with black voters to accepting campaign contributions from large donors in an effort to blunt any momentum heading into Tuesday's New Hampshire primary.