I also believe that Bloomberg entered the race due to concerns that Warren or Sanders might win the nomination - but I don’t believe for one second that it’s because he fears they will raise his taxes. It is unlikely that any tax increase would exceed the amount he currently donates. I think he’s concerned that one of them will win the nomination and then lose to Trump.
And I’m much more concerned about beating Trump than I am about someone paying their dues. I’m not at all sure Warren can and I’m pretty sure Sanders can’t.
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The charitable version would be he gave Biden a chance to show his chops and joined when he lost faith. The more cynical is that he knew Biden would falter but waited for the other moderate candidates to be forgotten before jumping in. If he had started early he might have been one of those early forgotten "not Biden"s.
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.
How does getting into the race late and using his money strategically even *remotely *compare with Trump’s lies?
He is in a unique position because he doesn’t have to fundraise. Not at all. This completely changes the game. It’s easy to try to equate Bloomberg and Steyer because they are both billionaires but Bloomberg is over 30 times richer than Steyer.
I think the long primary season is more about fund-raising and sponsors and I’m not sure it helps with the voters. I don’t think anyone needs two years to pick a candidate. I think one of the problems is that by voting time, they’re all stale.
And Bloomberg’s shortcoming is that he’s Michael Bloomberg. He’s short. He has a nasally voice. Hes not going to do well with the one on one, baby-kissing, corn dog eating stuff and he probably decided that winning over Iowans one at a time, in person, is waste of time and money. He’s not warm. He’s the kind of guy that hires a team of experts to run an data-driven analysis in order to decide what he wants for lunch. I’m not a conspiracy theorist but if any candidate is really a shapeshifting lizard from outer space, it’s Mike. I think it was smart of him to minimize his exposure until after his extensive ad campaign had taken hold.
I’m not holding it against him that he didn’t put himself out for a long primary season. It wouldn’t have worked well for him. Instead, he spent the past 2 years working with closely and extensively with municipalities and mayors across the country on climate and other policy initiatives which should gain him some support from the ground up.
It’s a unique approach. I’m not sure it will work. But I’m sure that every step he makes on the campaign trail is backed by pages and pages of evidence-based data. That’s how he works.
yes his cash certainly made it possible for him to skip IA and NH. He’s also skipping SC and NV. Rudy G the Ghoul tried skipping early states and he crashed and burned quickly.
So…he’s giving money to cities so they can do popular things, which presumably helps their mayors get re-elected. And in return, those mayors support his candidacy.
I’m quite sure Bernie will share my view that Bloomberg’s attempt to buy the election represents an existential threat to American democracy, and I’m pretty sure Warren will too.
IMO, therefore, the scenario you describe doesn’t end with the minor candidates coming together to support Bloomberg against Sanders, it ends with Sanders and Warren coming together to support Biden or Buttigieg or whoever against Bloomberg.
Which is certainly a win from Bloomberg’s POV, if his not running would have led to Sanders winning the nomination. But I don’t think it’s at all likely that a contested convention would actually nominate Bloomberg.
Has anyone seen any data on Bloomberg’s approval ratings? I saw one source that said he was at -28, far lower than Trump. But that seems inconsistent with the polls showing him doing well against Trump.
I don’t. Because I REALLY REALLY REALLY don’t want Donald Trump to win. And Trump has a billion dollars and the power of the Presidency.
I think Citizen United was one of the worst Supreme Court decisions ever. But it’s the law of the land. And Elizabeth Warren really pissed me off with her “we don’t need those nasty billionaires, we’ll win if everyone that likes me sends me $5 stuff.
YOU HAVE TO PLAY THE GAME YOU’RE IN, NOT THE GAME YOU WISH YOU WERE PLAYING. They didn’t get this in 2016, because some Democrats still think that winning the popular vote counts. THATS NOT THE GAME YOU WERE PLAYING.
This is not a normal election. The Democrats are against not only one of the best funded campaigns ever but most definitely the dirtiest and most dishonest.
We need every advantage we can get. Good for him. If Bloomberg and Bezos and Buffet got together and developed some legal way to pay everyone $1000 bucks for voting Democrat, I’d be all for it.
My state starts early voting next week. I haven’t seen a single commercial for anyone other than Bloomberg. Most ordinary non-political people that I know don’t know who Buttigieg and Klobuchar are, much less what they stand for.
I’m pissed because I’m scared. It’s like trying to watch a child’s lemonade stand compete with WalMart. This year I’m all about winning. There’s not going to be any solace in “Well, I lost but at least I didn’t take any dirty billionaire money”.
Maybe some people don’t hate Trump as much as I do, though.
Because those mayors have to wonder whether the money will keep flowing if they don’t support Bloomberg. It looks as though he’s trying to build up a patronage system.
More on Bloomberg and his wealth. Any Democratic candidate who gets elected president must have gotten there because they knew what issues are important to their voters. So, Bloomberg knows health care costs and stagnant wages are major concerns of the middle/working class, problems he hasn’t had since at least the early 1970s, if ever. He need not have experienced these things to know he will have to do something about them or probably not get re-elected. That’s why I’m not concerned with his wealth. And I think his wealth might actually be a very good thing for his chances. I love the contrast of two rich New Yorkers going at it, where one is an undeniable billionaire, a man who started and ran and immensely successful business, with a record of philanthropy and all the other things mentioned in this thread that he is for, and the other a questionable billionaire with a record of shady business dealings and numerous failed enterprises in his career. If there are two die-hard capitalists running, what sensible person on the fence would go for Trump?
And on this: I am of the opinion that whomever gets the nomination, they should set up state headquarters in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Florida, and maybe Arizona, and a chartered campaign to cycle through each state repeatedly until election day. Maybe a perfunctory trip to a number of other states just to make it look good, but California and New York ain’t going nowhere. The others will be the states that matter.
Well, there are people who aren’t necessarily stupid but are morally bankrupt. These people say “Well, I don’t care for the racism, misogyny, corruption, toxic ignorance, or habitual violation of basic democratic norms…but gee, look at my stock portfolio!” Bloomberg would no doubt clean up with these voters.
Then there are people who feel alienated from the system and want radical structural change. They see the influence of billionaires on the political process as a fundamentally bad thing. Many of these voters will stay home or vote third party if Bloomberg is the nominee. They may fairly be called stupid. If the end result is that Trump gets re-elected, though, there’s not going to be any solace in “Well, I lost, but at least I didn’t pander to those SJW purity ponies!”
There’s no way to know for sure whether the Democrats would come out ahead or not on that tradeoff. I suggest voting for the candidate who you feel would make the best President, and letting the chips fall where they may.
(Unless that candidate is Tulsi Gabbard. In that case, I suggest placing your head in the toilet and flushing repeatedly until I return with further instructions.)