With more than $200Million spent?
The former New York City Republican mayor , turned Democrat again will have brought himself a spot with party heavy hitters for the nomination…
Look for him to receive a LOT political incoming from ALL sides….
“Mike is looking forward to joining the other Democratic candidates on stage and making the case for why he’s the best candidate to defeat Donald Trump and unite the country,” campaign manager Kevin Sheekey said in a statement.
And here’s what having Bloomberg at the debate will mean:
- It could suck the oxygen from some of the candidates trying to compete with Bernie Sanders — like Pete Buttigieg (who won Iowa) or Amy Klobuchar (who finished a surprising third in New Hampshire). Indeed, our friends over Politico Playbook write: “Bloomberg vs. Bernie: It’s on.”
- It gives Sanders and Warren the billionaire foil for their policies and worldview.
- And it means that plenty of scrutiny is probably coming Bloomberg’s way. That could hurt him. Or he could survive and thrive — like Donald Trump did in 2015-2016.
Strikingly, Bloomberg isn’t even competing in Nevada’s caucuses; he’s skipping the first four contests.
But he will be on the debate stage tomorrow night….
image…vanityfair.com
I would expect this to get big ratings.
I made dinner plans so I will probably miss a good part of it live.
Bloomberg should be as disciplined as possible, Take a one term only pledge and basically refer to himself as “In Case of Emergency Break Glass” candidate.
Clearly, Bloomberg only got into the race in case Biden flamed out and clearly that has happened. Bloomberg should say that if not for him, the nomination will go to Sanders, and Trump will beat him… “and all of us.”
He should point out that he alone can get votes against Trump that others cannot, and has the resources to take him on that others will never have, even if he is not everything Democrats might be looking for. Push the electability aspect and the singular importance of beating Trump beyond trying to prove himself to be worthy of left-wing wokeness. If he tries to do that instead, he’s going to have a rough debate.
My Trump supporting acquaintances on Facebook have turned to throwing everything they can at Bloomberg. It’s clear who they are afraid of.
Bloomberg unveiled a plan to address Wall Street abuses that includes prosecution of individuals, not just corporations.
As they say–it took Nixon to go to China.
Yea….
Bloomberg AND Sanders have been getting thrown downs in the media in the last week…
He, he, he…
Ole Joe has actually been of the hook and getting a few support piece’s…
Image THAT1?
As of today, I still think Bloomberg is the most likely Democrat to defeat Trump – and for that reason he remains my choice. But my confidence in that decision has been shaken by the recent revelations in the news, and so my vote is probably back in the undecided column.
I was surprised that Mayor Pete only has a favorability rating among Democrats of 59% – well below Sanders and Warren who lead in this poll with 72%.
The leftist crowd on Twitter *hates* Buttigieg. Plus, you have the old-school Democrats who are uncomfortable with gay folk… the kind that get a pass compared to the old-school Republicans who feel the same way.
Mayor Pete is NOT gonna be the nominee…
I really do Not like debates anymore…
There will be a post on it though…
I expect the group to go after Sanders and Bloomberg…
REALLY?
Yea…Maybe Bloomberg will pay $$$$ for bigger ratings….
Were Bloomberg to win the Dem. nomination, you’d have a big enthusiasm deficiency gap to fill on the left and among minorities.
It’ll be hard to get them excited enough to spare time, energy and opportunities to campaign for:
Good New York Billionaire X
vs
Bad New York Billionaire Y
Of course they loathe and detest Billionaire Y, but Billionaire X (as Rudy Giuliani’s Republican successor as Mayor of Gotham City) has a lot of baggage to unload, especially among minorities.
Doesn’t mean that minority and left-wing voters won’t vote for Bloomberg in the general, but they may have difficulty (as they didn’t in 2008 for Barack Obama) in persuading their fellows to come out and vote.
¶ Now it’s also very, very true that Bloomberg might win over a lot of fence-sitters right in the middle (e.g. our friend CG), but I fear that, like Hillary Clinton in 2016, the Mayor will lose just as much if not more in voters and volunteers who might otherwise have rallied behind some other candidate (even Biden or Klobuchar).
I can understand why hundreds of thousands, if not millions, will openly express their support for democratic socialism [so much so that Democratic Socialists of America quadrupled its membership to 60,000 since Bernie Sanders first started running], but it’s hard to feel equal enthusiasm for whatever form of democratic finance capitalism that Michael Bloomberg represents — especially after the 2007-8 financial meltdown and recession discredited capitalism in the way that the 1929 stock market crash and depression did.
Why should Bloomberg be associated with the financial meltdown? It’s not even remotely related to his business interests.
He made his money in the media industry.
And if he is nominated, people will just have to come to terms with how badly they want Trump gone vs. ideological purity or “wokeness.”
Since I get such a hard time here as a certified “right-winger” for not being willing to vote for a potential Democrat nominees, I think the anger should fall greatly more upon actual “left-wingers” who would not do so.
I’ve told you on several occasions that I don’t care who you vote for.
Despite your periodic suggestion that you “might” vote for Bloomberg?
If he is the nominee,I would seriously doubt that you would actually vote for him.
If he is the nominee, I would intend to vote for him. I am as transparent as it comes in regards to things like this. You don’t have to “speculate.” I think I would be more likely to vote for him in that situation than Zreebs or james right now.
I think if he were the nominee and ,as the Democratic candidate, he took positions diametrically opposed to yours ,you would find it harder and harder to do so.
And by Election Day you would decide not to.
Since the odds are still against him being the nominee ,we will likely never know.
Depends on the specific issues. I have made it clear what my three or four very simple litmus tests are. But if he moves that far to the left, he is going to lose a lot of people.
He ought to run as a pure “center-left” person and let the Bernie Bros hold their nose and vote for him like I would… although of course I would prefer center-right.
I don’t think Bloomberg’s problem would be among African-Americans or minorities in November. It would be among the white liberal crowd on Twitter or those who openly call themselves “socialists.”
Years of conservative media have led you to believe that crew is more influential than it really is.
influential enough to cost you guys a close election, right?
It basically did last time.
Oh I am confident both James and Zreebs will support the Democratic nominee.
suggesting that I won’t vote for Bloomberg in the general election is ridiculous. Of course I would enthusiastically vote for him. In fact, There is a good chance I will vote for him in the primary. But even my least favorite Democrat in the field is far superior to Trump. If I am alive in November, I will vote for the Democratic nominee against Trump.
CG should have no concerns whatsoever that I won’t support Bloomberg in a general election race over Trump.
Biden IS MY first choice…
I wouldn’t happy but i could live with Bloomberg…
I would disagree with CG on how Bloomberg made his money, very much like some of the statements he has made were based on statistics and information.
Bloomberg made his money in information…anybody who is anybody that has a trading firm has a yearly subscription to Bloomberg Systems, which is an information system for trading…I believe a yearly subscription runs you about $64,000 and there are about 30,000 yearly subscribers…you do the math, he makes a shit ton of money off that information system…Thats why some of the statements he makes are crass, he is a technocrat driven by stats…Its a fundamental belief of his…but he will walk back a lot of the comments he has made and he will apologize to the right people and will do fine with getting the black vote…his problem will actually be connecting with working class whites who won’t like his wealth and who won’t like that he isn’t crass like trump…That will be a problem in the swing states…but will his middling ways help him in places like Florida and other centrist states that have lots of middle class voters who can be swayed either way…I think a Trump v Bloomberg is a tough fight, but I think the white middle class and the elderly will look to Bloomberg as an alternate to the current cultist leader we got…
I would agree mostly with ya bdog….
We have to see how the black vote goes…
If it has left Biden or not….
Money Mike is trying to buy the White House for a few years.,,
It could easily cost him 1/2 Billion $$$$
And THAT would mad money for him…
I would have though Democrats wouldn’t vote for another rich guy …
But with Biden not lighting up the media?
Moderates may hold their noses and go Bloomberg…
I just don’t see old time blacks voting for Bernie and the polling numbers back up my views…
Biden STILL is ahead in SC which is only 5 days away…
Biden also leads in most the Super Tuesday Southern States….
i think it is a bit TOO early to write Biden off even though the media did a while ago…
THE SANDERS/BLOOMBERG thing is getting NASTY…
For host of reasons,I think it’s hard to argue that Bloomberg, with all his”baggage “(a good bit of it apparently various statements he has made), would be a weaker General Election candidate than Sanders.
I am particularly struck by the attention given to Sanders’s crowds.Harkens back to 1972 and George McGovern and his huge crowds ,even on Election eve.McGovern would frequently allude to his crowds in claiming the polls were wrong.
Unfortunately,the polls turned out to be right in his landslide defeat.In later years ,McGovern often spoke of the lesson he learned from that experience.I was a youthful 21yoa then ;however, ever since I have never paid much attention to crowd sizes as a major factor in deciding winners and losers.
Typically, candidates who generate the most enthusiasm win. I have a black Democrat friend who said he won’t vote in the general election if Bloomberg is nominated.
It is worth observing how effectively Sanders answers difficult questions. He does a much, much better job at that than say Biden. We’ll see soon how effectively Bloomberg answers difficult questions.
How does he do a better job of answering difficult questions Zreebs? He doesn’t get into specifics very much, especially on the health care issue.
Today he announced that he wouldn’t release any further medical records, and even though that isn’t the typical debate question, he did just have a heart attack and it looks like he’s hiding something.
Bloomberg will be in the hot seat tomorrow. But, I would assume some people might want to ask Bernie about how he’s going to pay for all his promises.
I feel Sanders answers the questions about healthcare just fine. Ultimately, a comprehensive national healthcare system will be much less expensive than what we have now for a wide variety of reasons which I have discussed frequently here. Our healthcare system is easily the most expensive in the world and it should be obvious that something needs to be done about it. But of course, the cost savings is difficult to quantify because the savings will heavily depend on things such as the fees that will be paid to providers.
With regard to how do you pay for what we need, we can start by getting out of Afghanistan – which costs us $14b each month. I’m not one if Those Democrats who still thinks that victory in Afghanistan Is right around the corner. We have been hearing that for almost two decades now. Why aren’t the so-called “moderate” Democrats being asked how are we going to continue to pay for this pointless war?
I must add that I am a little amused that as someone who supports California becoming its own country, you had better be reasonably comfortable with a comprehensive government run healthcare plan, because that is what you would get if California becomes its own country.
Sanders popularity in California is rather impressive. I wonder what that means?
I am only in favor of California being it’s own State if Trump is re-elected and he might, in his zeal to get even, eject us from the Union.
My healthcare is portable, it will work in a foreign country
But please remind me how Bernie said he would pay for his plan. I don’t remember him saying how he intended to do that.
Not sure how you don’t remember, but whatever. You must have fallen for Mayor Pete’s propaganda.
You will pay for the plan in taxes. But this means that you won’t have to pay for out of pocket healthcare costs. In the aggregate you will save money because (for example) you won’t have to pay for the profit load built in, nor have to pay for 8-figure CEO salaries.
He’s polling at 30 percent. Why is that impressive? His campaign organization is intact from last time, just as it was in NH. He had a head start over everyone and it’s hurting Amy and Pete.
Would you like to make a wager that he exceeds 30%.
And by way, that 30% is currently more than twice the total of any other candidate. I’m impressed.
Older blacks probably won’t vote for Sanders either….
Seriously?
I’m worried that Democrats are secretly working to re-elect Donald Trump….
Millions of primary ballots arrived here in California last week, and most, if not all, of the Democrats I know are waiting for tomorrow night’s debate before they mail their ballots back in.
I went to a fundraising breakfast for Mayor Pete last week, not held in a wine cave, and it was overflow. But, then again, so have the events been for Sanders here in the Bay area.
I, like so many other Democrats here, know who I won’t vote for, but haven’t decided on who I will vote for. But, again, I will be voting for the Democratic nominee in November — as all good Americans should do.
Why is is taking you so long to make up your mind? That’s usually not a sign of enthusiasm.
And so much early voting is going to backfire in situations like this, as people will be voting for candidates who will have dropped out by Election Day or look even more non-viable.
Alex Seitz-Wald
@aseitzwald
New California poll that looks like the new NBC/WSJ national poll, with Sanders out front big and lots of candidates flirting w/viability:
– Sanders 32%
– Biden 14%
– Warren 13%
– Buttigieg 12%
– Bloomberg 12%
– Klobuchar 5%
– Steyer 3%
Wow – If Sanders wins California by those numbers, he will take a commanding lead in the delegate race and will be hard to stop for the nomination.
There’s a Survey USA poll out that has it a three point contest between Sanders and Bloomberg. Like I said, lots of people are waiting for tomorrow’s debate before they decide.
It’s very dangerous to make arbitrary divisions, since the second choice of a Warren voter may not be Sanders, and the second choice of a Biden voter may not be Buttigieg, but if you do make such divisions, the artificial sums (before rounding) of artificial ranks come out about equal
32% Sanders + 13% Warren = ~45%
14% Biden + 12% Buttigieg + 12% Bloomberg + 5% Klobuchar = ~43%
[3% Steyer (unclassifiable); ~ 9% other/don’t know/won’t say/rounding adjustments]