As The Washington Post reports:
Mike Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York who had hoped to self-fund his way to the Democratic presidential nomination but was spurned by voters in Tuesday’s balloting, has dropped out of the race.
Bloomberg endorsed Joe Biden, saying the former vice president had the best chance to win in November.
“I’ve always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it. After yesterday’s vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden,” Bloomberg said in a statement.
And then there were three.
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Bloomberg will be running attack ads against Sanders and Warren as much or more than he attacks Trump. Because that’s what it means to be a moderate “unifying” Democrat these days.
Such an optimist.
Bloomberg's theory of the race did not pan out. Biden and his campaign proved to good enough for long enough to fend off younger competitors, and his long history with leaders of Black communities (and probably the community's skepticism of Sanders' plans ever actually happening) was sufficient to maintain a substantial lead among Blacks 35+ years old. And then there was the campaign's hubris — at least, that's the only reason I can think of to explain Bloomberg's awful responses to run-of-the-mill criticisms and staggeringly bad performance in his first debate.
If, after dropping out, he continues to run ads, I expect they will continue to needle Trump. I doubt anyone thinks anti-Warren ads are necessary. And surely his high-priced talent knows that any campaign against Sanders will easily be turned into an anti-endorsement, one Sanders would be happy to highlight.
He tried being a candidate for 3 and a half months. Perhaps he can do some good with a similar amount of money in the next 3 and a half months: coordinate with the DNC and state parties to register and GOTV, support down-ticket candidates who can help drive turnout, and do some issue advertising on his favorite topics, climate and guns. And then 3 and a half months to go absolutely negative on Trump and Pence (or whoever is the stooge VP).
John we view his strategy through perspectives. If his theory of the race was to make sure the Not-A-Democrat from Vermont Socialist was not the nominee and he wanted to invest heavily in early marketing on every social media platform including MTV with pro-Democratic and Trump sucks commercials then his theory is working. Throw in the development of a coordinated set of campaign offices through out the country to operate as a PAC and drive voter registration and GOTV operations then he might be a lot smarter than you give him credit for. These office operations will be tasked with doing the things Sanders said he was doing which would be to turn out younger voters. He did ads and didn’t do rallies because he was working and running a company with 20,000 employees is probably a full time thing. If you assume that he didn’t really want to work full time campaigning then it is possible that he was doing all this with one goal in mind and it wasn’t to get elected. It was to get rid of one of the most incompetent and dangerous presidents in the history of the country. He is still running ads because it locks out Republicans and continues his excellent ads promoting progressive issues. You need to reassess what winning and losing mean when the goal is to get rid of Trump.
GG, if you are asking me why I think that Bloomberg will still be spending money attacking Bernie’s policies, it’s because attacking those policies was the only reason Bloomberg got into the race in the first place.
Bloomberg was never a serious contender for the Presidency- he had one mission: to prevent the progressive policy proposals of Sanders and Warren from happening. Bloomberg didn’t do rallies, not because he was so busy making bajillions, but because he has no charisma, is an uninspiring speaker and incompetent debater, with a ton of political baggage. His popularity was totally fluffed up by social media- it just took 400 million to do that.
Those “socialist” policy proposals you so fear and despise:( universal health care, free in state college tuition, wealth tax of .02 on wealth over 50 million) are prevalent in all of our allied democratic countries; the US is the outlier in not providing them. Scary Bernie and Liz just want us to fully join the modern world. There are millions of struggling working people, including me, who stand to benefit from those policies. I haven’t given up on them yet; with Cali almost all counted, Bernie will be slightly ahead in delegate count. Liz may join Bernie as Veep. I hope so.
Mike Bloomberg got into the race to block those policies. If Sanders and Warren join forces and gain delegates against Gaffer Biden, Bloomberg will resume attacking the policies. In this, he is Donald Trump’s natural ally.
Democrats almost always eat their own (Obama excepted). Bending the rules to allow Bloomberg to sabotage their progressive front runners ( Warren was ascendant when Blooms got in), after enforcing their rules to evict all of the candidates of color from the debate stage, is just dumb ass Democratic “logic” to protect the established order. Dumb Dems will do it again when superdelegates will be summoned to quash Bernie if he comes out ahead in delegates. Again, it’s all about the policies.
Promoting flawed Biden as the unity savior who will slay the socialist policies and vanquish Trump, shows Democratic desperation, not strength. At least Biden believes in the rule of law. It isn’t enough, but it’s a start.
When / if you reply, GG, try not misquoting me. I never said I wouldn’t vote for Biden. I said that GOTV (getting out the vote) will be much more difficult with a boring same old same old ticket with Biden and Hick at the top. Do you dispute that? Have you ever done GOTV? Will you do it this year?
"Liz may join Bernie as Veep. I hope so….."
Trump will like that. Imagine getting to run against two ultra left senators from New England……….
Thanks for asking and yes I have and yes I will. I have been a county vice-chair, chair and central committee member since 2004.
As far as personal attacks on Sanders and Warren by Bloomberg, I didn't see any. He actually did what Warren asked him to do between debates one and two and thanked her for changing his companies personal policies. No such niceties from those two. As far as policy differences are concerned, why wouldn't he oppose 76 trillion dollars in government spending over ten years that would be unpalatable to American voters? In other areas of progressive concern like the environment, he has already done more to combat climate change then the other two combined.
Being bitter and butt hurt about backing a losing candidate is normal but not everyone who disagrees with you is your enemy. History will show that Bloomberg did the world a good deed by seeding the electorate with progressive ideas with his positive ads. He was also the punching bag for the two and diverted their attention from going after Biden until it was too late. Sacrificed himself for the greater good as Spock would have said.
Have a good caucus and hope I didn't misquote your comments this time.
Again, you misquote what I wrote. Bloomberg got in the race to attack Warren and Sanders’ policies, not them personally. Unlike yourself, Bloom wasn’t slinging sexist terms like “queen bitch” and “harpy” for Warren, nor “egotistic_____” for Bernie. You also accused me of being a Russian bot, bitter, and butt hurt, while I haven’t insulted you at all – but if you say you’re not my enemy, I’ll have to take your word on it.
( I’ll remind you here that a big ego is required to run for President, and that the same scrappy toughness you’d find admirable in a male candidate makes a female “unlikeable”, and “unelectable”..or so I hear)
And Bloomberg (and others) will continue attacking their policies, whether under their own names or some murky string of PACs. He continually represents Medicare for All as a tax increase, while never mentioning the cost savings with no premiums or copays. The university tuition and student loan forgiveness is planned to be paid for with a transaction tax on stock trades- which would cut down a few of Bloomie’s billions. Warren’s .02 tax on those with over 50 million$ incomes is misrepresented as a middle and working class tax increase. The 73 trillion # you toss around has been realistically estimated at $20-35 Trillion over a decade,
Since your mind is evidently made up, I won’t confuse you with any more facts. Good luck in your own caucus – As a party leader, I hope you don’t feel your mission to be to silence, shame, or banish all dissenters- you probably don’t have enough Democrats in Gilpin County for that.
To take just one of your many untrue statements on, flightless bird: wealth tax rises to 6 percent at $1billion net worth. It is rare among social democracies and supreme court would likely ban it as a direct tax.
With all the talk of Medicare for All, how come Bernie never mentions the cost of buying out the dozens of companies that presently write health insurance policies? How come Bernie never talks about plans for re-training or new jobs for the million plus persons currently working in the health care insurance field? How come Bernie never talks about the format of Medicare for All? Where will all those extra doctors and nurses come from?
‘Cuz it ain’t never gonna’ happen? . . .
Just my guess.
We should maybe someday in a saner world talk about expanding Medicare access? Maybe, starting with allowing a buy-in at age 60? And then lowering the age of eligibility every 5 years by 5 years? Allow everyone including the insurance companies and markets to make gradual adjustments and do some business planning?
Maybe call it M4U? Catchy . . .
What makes you think that kwtree? In the $200 million that he has spent on ads have you seen one that attacks Democrats or tries to drive up the negatives of a fellow Democrat? I’m not talking Sanders or Warren. It didn’t happen and your fears are unfounded. Bloomberg never has and never will attack a fellow Democrat. He doesn’t need to. Biden is fully capable of winning the nomination without Bloomberg’s help. Folks decided that the promise of new voters was another promise that Sanders wasn’t going to keep because he had not done the ground work to make it happen so they voted for someone who would be acceptable to their Independent or Republican neighbors or friends. If you aren’t getting new voters than take voters from your opponent who hate him but won’t vote for a Not-A-Democrat from Vermont. The tide of history has come in for Biden. He is Trumps worst nightmare because he is a plausible alternative for Independents and Republicans who still have a scintilla of honor in their characters. The revolution died last night but it’s not a bad thing. This election is not about social change as much as it is ridding our government of incompetent men. The damage to the Supreme Court and our justice system of another term of Trump would be perhaps fatally destructive. You couldn’t ask Goldberg to hang on for another five years. That would be elder abuse. We need to win this election period and the voters are backing a white guy with a ton of experience and connections and can pull votes from the opposition.
There hasn't been a Goldberg on the court since Justice Arthur Goldberg resigned in 1965. Do you mean the notorious RBG?
Sorry. I had a Biden moment. Yes I meant RBG. Ruined the whole joke about elder abuse but those are the risks of political comedy gaffes.
Wonder if all those lucrative consulting/endorsement contracts he let out will be honored through November as promised?
Yes, they will.
If I was going to make any recommendations to Donnie ‘faux billionaire’ Drumpf it might be that he stop poking Mike ‘the real billionaire’ Bloomberg on the Twitter. Mini-Mike appears to be committed to dethroning Mr. “I raw-dogged a porn star’” Dennison.
Fuxsakes people, wake up . . .
Bloomberg Spent $233,333 an Hour to Lose the Presidency and Wage a Class War
https://newrepublic.com/article/156743/bloomberg-spent-233333-hour-lose-presidency-wage-class-war
Catch up dude – the class war stuff is over. If you dont know who won – it's not you
It's about speaking oddities and forgetfulness now. The Medicare and SSA cuts will come later.
Ahhh….the good old New Republic. Known in some circles as the Breitbart or Newsmax equivalent for the far left.
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