Tuesday, June 26, 2018

MIKE BLOOMBERG WON'T WIN THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION IN 2020

Here comes this guy again:
Michael Bloomberg is revving up to run for president in 2020, making him both the oldest and richest person to seek the job.

Bloomberg considered running in 2016 as an Independent, but sources tell CBS2’s Political Reporter Marcia Kramer that if he runs in 2020, he would run as a Democrat.
So that explains the $80 million he's reportedly planning to spend to help flip the House for the Democrats this year -- he's collecting IOUs. Naively, I thought he might be doing it for the good of the country.

Matt Yglesias thinks Bloomberg could win the nomination in a crowded field -- I assume because most of the candidates in the field will be solid progressives -- but there's such a thing as being so out of touch with the values of your party that you can't even take advantage of a split vote. Consider Bloomberg's message when he was pondering a run as an independent in 2016, as reported in January of that year by The New York Times:
His advisers and associates said he was galled by Donald J. Trump’s dominance of the Republican field, and troubled by Hillary Clinton’s stumbles and the rise of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont on the Democratic side....

If Republicans were to nominate Mr. Trump or Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a hard-line conservative, and Democrats were to pick Mr. Sanders, Mr. Bloomberg ... has told allies he would be likely to run.

... Mr. Bloomberg has lamented what he considers Mrs. Clinton’s lurch to the left in her contest against Mr. Sanders, especially her criticism of charter schools and other education reforms that he pushed as mayor and has continued to support since leaving office.
So Bloomberg thought Sanders and Clinton were too far to the left. Clinton's dangerous radicalism was ... opposing charter schools.

Recall also that Bloomberg endorsed Barack Obama in 2008, but then broke with him in 2010 because he believed Obama was waging a (gasp!) war on Wall Street:
New York mayor Mike Bloomberg is outraged by Washington's attack on his city's primary source of tax revenue. And he has lobbed in a tit-for-tat plan to hold Congress accountable, too.

Marcia Kramer, WCBS TV:

... The mayor was so upset about the move -- and a suggestion that Wall Street bonuses be put in escrow, which means the money wouldn't be spent here, wouldn't help the city economy -- he responded with a proposal of his own for members of Congress.

"Maybe we should hold back their salaries for a decade or so and see whether the laws they pass work out," Bloomberg said.
Pro-Wall Street, pro-charter schools ... um, he's not exactly an ideal fit for the modern Democratic Party.

Also, did I mention his unwavering support for stop-and-frisk?

And although he was mayor of a largely non-white city for twelve years, is he really going to have enough appeal to the Southern black women whose support in the early Super Tuesday primaries will decide whether his candidacy really gets off the ground?

Joe Scarborough and Chuck Todd would be over the moon if he ran, but I can't imagine where there'll be Democratic voter interest, except maybe in New York and surrounding states.

I guess he's welcome to try, but I think he'll be as out of step in 2020 as Joe Lieberman was in 2004.

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