# "Mike" Bloomberg Presidential campaign, 2020 **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 27, 2019, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mike-bloomberg-presidential-campaign-2020/844048 "2019-11-27T03:42:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mike-bloomberg-presidential-campaign-2020/844048/141 "2020-02-12T08:44:02Z")
Best outcome is a nasty public feud between Bloomie and Trump, that results in Bloomie pouring huge amounts of money in defeating Trump with whoever defeats Bloomie. Groovy. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mike-bloomberg-presidential-campaign-2020/844048/142 "2020-02-12T13:29:18Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > Because I don’t really care when he got into the race, as long as he can beat Trump. I think he is the Democrat with the best chance to beat Trump. Bonus: I think he’s a good, moral man who shares my opinion on climate change. Nah, he’s a racist, sexist asshole who shares our opinion about climate change, and may well be the Dem with the best chance of beating Trump. I’m willing to dance with the devil if that’s what it takes to save the world my son will spend his life in. And it may come down to that. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mike-bloomberg-presidential-campaign-2020/844048/143 "2020-02-12T13:47:21Z")
He will appear at the main train station here in Raleigh. Interesting choice. I figured he would be at a hotel ballroom but maybe they are all booked up. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mike-bloomberg-presidential-campaign-2020/844048/144 "2020-02-12T13:58:25Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Nah, he’s a racist, sexist asshole who shares our opinion about climate change, and may well be the Dem with the best chance of beating Trump. > > I’m willing to dance with the devil if that’s what it takes to save the world my son will spend his life in. And it may come down to that. This, word for word. ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mike-bloomberg-presidential-campaign-2020/844048/145 "2020-02-12T14:04:40Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > Hitler thought he was doing the world a favour by sending millions of people to concentration camps. Do you think that if Hitler thinks he was doing this for good reasons that we should consider that when we look at his impact on history? This fails utterly as an attempt at an analogy. Hitler’s goal was to kill people. Bloomberg’s goal was to prevent people from being killed. > [@](#): > > My response wasn’t about you. The evidence showed that stop and frisk didn’t work. If Bloomberg was motivated by “stopping the kids dying” then setting policy that worked against that goal puts his motivations in doubt. Possibly, or it could simply mean that his policies failed in spite of his good intentions. But since you feel Bloomberg might have had other motivations, what might those be? > [@](#): > > Sometimes things are black and white. Some things are constitutional and some things aren’t. These weren’t random stops. They were being stopped purely on the basis of the colour of their skin. This is indefensible. \*\* Let me know when you’ve finished considering “both sides” and then if you can figure out a defense I would love to hear it.\*\* Why the snark? It’s tiring. I am not here to defend Stop and Frisk, and haven’t done so. I was against it when it came out and I am against it now. This thread is about Bloomberg’s campaign to become president. You think his policy disqualifies him completely, and I respect that opinion. I just happen to think that if someone is trying to save the lives of people, when he is _literally_ trying to keep people alive who would otherwise be killed due to crime in the city he was elected to protect, that he should get some credit for it. But you just dismiss it out of hand, and imply some other motivation. ---
**Author:** ![Thing\_Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@Thing\_Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing_Fish)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mike-bloomberg-presidential-campaign-2020/844048/146 "2020-02-12T18:04:32Z")
> [@Fiddle\_Peghead](#): > > From these two, and assuming Bloomberg had data to back up the idea that the neighborhoods where Stop and Frisk was implemented had higher crime rates, it is clear he did what he did to bring down crime and stop the murder of kids. That doesn’t make the policy the right way to go about it, but it does show motivation. As for what I know now, I don’t know that Bloomberg should be excoriated for this when his intentions were good. Good intentions aren’t enough, if they lead to bad policies. And this seems to illustrate a problematic Bloombergian mindset: “Let’s keep doing what wasn’t working before, but this time we’ll throw more money at it”. It’s the attitude that brought us the Vietnam and Iraq wars. ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mike-bloomberg-presidential-campaign-2020/844048/147 "2020-02-12T18:15:21Z")
> [@Thing\_Fish](#): > > Good intentions aren’t enough, if they lead to bad policies. And this seems to illustrate a problematic Bloombergian mindset: “Let’s keep doing what wasn’t working before, but this time we’ll throw more money at it”. It’s the attitude that brought us the Vietnam and Iraq wars. Agreed, they are not enough, because the goal in the end is to fix the problem, not just to _try_ and fix it. But they should count for something, I think. Maybe you could elaborate on the Bloombergian mindset, though. Do you mean as mayor or otherwise? ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mike-bloomberg-presidential-campaign-2020/844048/148 "2020-02-12T18:17:09Z")
Late start in this discussion. Shouldn’t Bloomberg if he really wants to win actually be out there campaigning? You know the old travelling around, kissing babies, making speeches, eat at local diners and shaking hands, etc… All I see from him is annoying ads on you tube. Ok, another point. In one ad he brags how he shut down some coal burning power plants. Ok, that sounds nice, but what did he replace them with? Electricity has to come from somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mike-bloomberg-presidential-campaign-2020/844048/149 "2020-02-12T18:41:38Z")
> [@](#): > > Late start in this discussion. > > Shouldn’t Bloomberg if he really wants to win actually be out there campaigning? You know the old travelling around, kissing babies, making speeches, eat at local diners and shaking hands, etc… > > All I see from him is annoying ads on you tube. 😕In the past two weeks Bloomberg has been to: -Florida -Michigan -Virginia -California -Maine -Washington DC -Pennsylvania -Texas -Oklahoma -Tennessee -Alabama To name a few. Plus he has plans to be in North Carolina tomorrow. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mike-bloomberg-presidential-campaign-2020/844048/150 "2020-02-12T18:48:51Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > Late start in this discussion. > > Shouldn’t Bloomberg if he really wants to win actually be out there campaigning? You know the old travelling around, kissing babies, making speeches, eat at local diners and shaking hands, etc… > > All I see from him is annoying ads on you tube. He joined the race too late to get on the ballot for earlier primaries. He is pinning his hopes on Super Tuesday, IIUC. His claim to have shut down a lot of coal plants is a [bit misleading](https://apnews.com/949eedac2104bcd3a26a2bb11b58aa0e). They have been replaced mostly by oil-fired plants and, especially, natural gas. And, to be fair, some renewable sources as well. He also wants to shut down natural gas plants. He wants to replace them with “clean energy”. I don’t find many references to nuclear energy on his website, so it is hard to tell if he is serious or not. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mike-bloomberg-presidential-campaign-2020/844048/151 "2020-02-12T21:10:29Z")
> [@Fiddle\_Peghead](#): > > This fails utterly as an attempt at an analogy. Hitler’s goal was to kill people. Bloomberg’s goal was to prevent people from being killed. …it doesn’t fail as an analogy. But you don’t have to use this particular analogy. I’ve got a million others. Like the anti-vaxxer analogy that you conveniently ignored. The goal of the anti-vaxxer is to stop people dying. Do they get credit because “their hearts are in the right place?” > [@](#): > > Possibly, or it could simply mean that his policies failed in spite of his good intentions. But since you feel Bloomberg might have had other motivations, **what might those be**? What part of “I don’t give a fuck about his motivations” are you failing to understand? > [@](#): > > Why the snark? It’s tiring. Welcome to the Straight Dope. Enjoy the veal. > [@](#): > > I am not here to defend Stop and Frisk, and haven’t done so. I was against it when it came out and I am against it now. How could you have been against it? You literally asked me for a cite that sometimes the police threw people up against the wall. **You know nothing about stop and frisk**. > [@](#): > > This thread is about Bloomberg’s campaign to become president. You think his policy disqualifies him completely, and I respect that opinion. I just happen to think that if someone is trying to save the lives of people, when he is _literally_ trying to keep people alive who would otherwise be killed due to crime in the city he was elected to protect, that **he should get some credit for it**. But you just dismiss it out of hand, and imply some other motivation. So you think Bloomberg deserves some credit for a racist policy that terrorized the lives of hundreds of thousands of people of colour in New York for a decade. I’ll just quote what I said in my first post in this thread: > [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > …I just don’t understand how anyone could think that someone responsible for such a [horrendous, racist, dehumanizing, punitive unconstitutional](https://ccrjustice.org/stop-and-frisk-human-impact) [policy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop-and-frisk_in_New_York_City)is even remotely qualified to win the nomination. **Its almost as if black lives don’t matter**. > > And then I remember that millions of people also voted for Donald Trump and things make more sense. Yes: I’m dismissing Bloomberg out of hand: and I think I’m justified in doing so. He deserves as much credit for “trying to save lives” as Andrew Wakefield does for his contributions to the medical industry. You’ve erased black voices from your narrative. You ignore the racism, you ignore the impact this policy had on the black community, you ignore the fact that the policy was obviously unconstitutional. You ignore the fact that Bloomberg still defended Stop and Frisk in 2019. > [@Bloomberg in Jan this year](#): > > Taking questions from the audience during the United States Naval Academy’s 2019 Leadership Conference, Bloomberg was told by a Naval Academy midshipman that “there have been a lot of controversies surrounding your support of the policy of stop and frisk that was being used by law enforcement to target African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans.” > > “What would you say to those in the two communities that have been negatively affected by the policy that you supported in the past?” the midshipman asked Bloomberg. > > “We focused on keeping kids from going through the correctional system … kids who walked around looking like they might have a gun, remove the gun from their pockets and stop it,” Bloomberg said. > > … > > But on Tuesday, Bloomberg once again voiced his support for “stop and frisk” policing, adding, “I think it’s also true that most police departments around the world do the same thing, they just don’t report it or use the terminology.” [https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/22/politics/bloomberg-stop-and-frisk/index.html](https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/22/politics/bloomberg-stop-and-frisk/index.html) This man deserves no credit. ---
**Author:** ![Thing\_Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@Thing\_Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing_Fish)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mike-bloomberg-presidential-campaign-2020/844048/152 "2020-02-12T21:14:31Z")
One wonders exactly what characteristics these kids might have had that make them “look like they might have a gun”. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mike-bloomberg-presidential-campaign-2020/844048/153 "2020-02-12T21:52:23Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > All I see from him is annoying ads on you tube. Lucky you. Around here (Texas), it seems like every fourth commercial is a Mike Bloomberg commercial, of which there are maybe 3 variants. ---
**Author:** ![Thing\_Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@Thing\_Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing_Fish)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mike-bloomberg-presidential-campaign-2020/844048/154 "2020-02-12T22:20:02Z")
I am curious to see if a backlash will develop to Bloomberg among the elite Democratic donor class; the ordinary multimillionaires who are accustomed to spending campaign season paying $25,000 to attend parties in wine caves, where the candidate personally kisses their ass in an attempt to shake loose some \*real \*money. They probably like Bloomberg’s policies, but his model cuts them out of the picture as surely as Bernie’s does. We’ll see if money starts rolling in for Buttigieg and/or Klobuchar. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mike-bloomberg-presidential-campaign-2020/844048/155 "2020-02-12T22:36:28Z")
> [@Thing\_Fish](#): > > They probably like Bloomberg’s policies, but his model cuts them out of the picture as surely as Bernie’s does. We’ll see if money starts rolling in for Buttigieg and/or Klobuchar. I mean where did you think Buttigieg’s money has been coming in from? It isn’t like the elite donors were bankrolling Biden’s campaign that much. ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mike-bloomberg-presidential-campaign-2020/844048/156 "2020-02-12T22:38:27Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > …it doesn’t fail as an analogy. But you don’t have to use this particular analogy. I’ve got a million others. Like the anti-vaxxer analogy that you conveniently ignored. The goal of the anti-vaxxer is to stop people dying. Do they get credit because “their hearts are in the right place?” I did not conveniently ignore anything. When you make a failed analogy, why should I just move on to the next one? Why? I don’t have time to respond to everything you say. And sorry, but you are the one conveniently ignoring. I told you why the Hitler analogy was faulty, and you didn’t defend it. > [@](#): > > What part of “I don’t give a fuck about his motivations” are you failing to understand? _You_ suggested he had other motivations, not me, so I asked you about them. Now, I understand that you also don’t have time to respond to everything I say, so if you still don’t want to tell me what they might be, fine. > [@](#): > > How could you have been against it? You literally asked me for a cite that sometimes the police threw people up against the wall. **You know nothing about stop and frisk**. I lived in New York City when Bloomberg was mayor. I was here when SaF was implemented. As I’ve said, I was against it then and I’m against it now. Asking you about specific abuses does NOT mean I know nothing about it. And it certainly does not mean that I did not know how it was carried out, which is to say, by the indiscriminate detaining of people because of what they look like. > [@](#): > > So you think Bloomberg deserves some credit for a racist policy that terrorized the lives of hundreds of thousands of people of colour in New York for a decade. I said he deserved credit for trying to save lives, not for the willful terrorizing of anyone. > [@](#): > > Yes: I’m dismissing Bloomberg out of hand: and I think I’m justified in doing so. He deserves as much credit for “trying to save lives” as Andrew Wakefield does for his contributions to the medical industry. You’ve erased black voices from your narrative. You ignore the racism, you ignore the impact this policy had on the black community, you ignore the fact that the policy was obviously unconstitutional. You ignore the fact that Bloomberg still defended Stop and Frisk in 2019. This once again shows that you are missing my point. I have NO “narrative” concerning SaF and I am not here to defend it. If I _were_ here to do that and did as you say, yes that would mean I was erasing black voices, ignoring racism, etc., but it’s not the case. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mike-bloomberg-presidential-campaign-2020/844048/157 "2020-02-12T22:50:28Z")
> [@Fiddle\_Peghead](#): > > I did not conveniently ignore anything. When you make a failed analogy, why should I just move on to the next one? Why? …but I didn’t make a failed analogy. > [@](#): > > I don’t have time to respond to everything you say. And sorry, but you are the one conveniently ignoring. I told you why the Hitler analogy was faulty, and you didn’t defend it. Why should Bloomberg get credit for his motivations? Should we give Andrew Wakefield credit for his motivations? > [@](#): > > _You_ suggested he had other motivations, not me, so I asked you about them. Now, I understand that you also don’t have time to respond to everything I say, so if you still don’t want to tell me what they might be, fine. I don’t care about his motivations. The claim that he was motivated because “of the children” was the claim I was addressing. > [@](#): > > I lived in New York City when Bloomberg was mayor. I was here when SaF was implemented. As I’ve said, I was against it then and I’m against it now. Asking you about specific abuses does NOT mean I know nothing about it. And it certainly does not mean that I did not know how it was carried out, which is to say, by the indiscriminate detaining of people because of what they look like. You lived in New York City while Bloomberg was Mayor and you didn’t know that the police sometimes threw people up against the wall. I think that says it all really. > [@](#): > > I said he deserved credit for trying to save lives, not for the willful terrorizing of anyone. Does Andrew Wakefield deserve credit for trying to save lives? > [@](#): > > This once again shows that you are missing my point. I have NO “narrative” concerning SaF and I am not here to defend it. If I _were_ here to do that and did as you say, yes that would mean I was erasing black voices, ignoring racism, etc., but it’s not the case. Yet another post from you, yet again not one ounce of empathy for the people that Bloomberg terrorised for a decade. As I said: its almost as if black lives don’t matter. The narrative is crystal clear. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mike-bloomberg-presidential-campaign-2020/844048/158 "2020-02-12T23:07:32Z")
Don’t spend too much time worrying about Bloomberg as the nominee. For that to happen Sanders, Pete, and Warren would all have to quit the race or end up 6 feet under. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mike-bloomberg-presidential-campaign-2020/844048/159 "2020-02-12T23:13:36Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Don’t spend too much time worrying about Bloomberg as the nominee. For that to happen Sanders, Pete, and Warren would all have to quit the race or end up 6 feet under. Or if he wins more delegates than them. I know it’s traditional that the winner of the first two matchups is a favorite but I really don’t think it’s happening for Buttigieg. Even with a good bounce, he needs a lot better numbers in the other states. In fact, Pete and Bloomberg’s odds of winning are about the same way n 538 right now. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mike-bloomberg-presidential-campaign-2020/844048/160 "2020-02-12T23:23:31Z")
If anybody is close to enough votes on first ballot they won’t suddenly dump that person. They will probably win on 2nd ballot. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mike-bloomberg-presidential-campaign-2020/844048.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mike-bloomberg-presidential-campaign-2020/844048.md?page=9)