Bloomberg's Error

[Progressive2020]

I think Bloomberg's strategy of skipping South Carolina and focusing on Super Tuesday will ultimately result in his failure. Bloomberg was positioning himself to be the moderate, anti-Bernie candidate. He would be fighting for this crown mainly with Joe Biden. Now, with some polls showing a Biden surge in South Carolina, and no Bloomberg in that contest, Biden has a real chance. If Biden takes the lion's share of the victory there and shows that he can beat Sanders, it will resurrect Biden's flagging campaign after losses in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada.

If this happens, if Biden wins South Carolina and holds Bernie down to low numbers there, Biden's campaign will be re-energized for Super Tuesday. Then it may well turn out to be a contest between Biden and Bernie. If Bloomberg had gotten on the ballot in South Carolina, he might have been able to stop Biden there. Now, with Biden unopposed by Bloomberg in South Carolina, Biden may be positioned for a significant win in that state. And that could propel Biden into the Super Tuesday contest as the Democratic alternative to Bernie. It might be too late at that point for Bloomberg, and the contest will essentially be between Biden and Sanders.

[Zeus69]

1. I hope

But Bloomberg has so much flippin money devoted to ST that he will likely do enough to disrupt Joe's run.

[Indykatie]

20. I Have A Different Take on Bloomberg and His Strategy

He entered the race late because he didn't want to deal with the rough and tumble mess they often became. He skipped SC because he knew he wouldn't fare well in a State with a significant number of POC. He needs to get out asap. He's not helping anyone but Bernie. So do Amy and Steyer unless they want to have a legacy of being spoilers. Amy aspires to a long successful political career. Being tagged as a spoiler will stick and people will remember.

[Skya Rhen]

21. I agree - I believe his strategy all along was to take a shortcut by avoiding the long campaigning

and jump straight to Super Tuesday, when a bulk of the delegates were in play. His aim was to avoid the months and months of scrutiny, when everybody else had to endure it. I have no respect for this tactic. None.

[Kaleva]

2. I suspect Bloomberg will not mind Biden winning.

[Zeus69]

6. I agree

But he's not helping (at the moment).
And this makes Bernie happy.

[Kaleva]

7. Bloomberg delegates and super delegates going to Biden may be enough

And it could be vice versa too if Biden falters, Bloomberg may get the nod.

[Tweedy]

16. Bloomberg will not get the nod

We will not sell our nomination

[Hoyt]

19. Yet promising people stuff that can't be delivered, is OK.

[mr_lebowski]

22. I'm frankly amazed that a POLITICIAN, of all people in the world ... would do something so SHOCKING

as to promise shit to people that has little chance of actually happening.

It's like, WHAT is the world coming to when you can't even trust politicians to be 100% honest?

I tell ya, I never even heard of such travesties before 2016 ... I'm very disillusioned and dismayed by this sudden and dramatic shift in paradigms.

[Tweedy]

23. Yes. Though who can say what the future will hold?

We need to rid ourselves of citizens united, not nominate a candidate whose sole qualification is his purse.

The former Mayor is a terrible candidate. Even in his commercials, the former Mayor is in no way inspirational. Who knows how many NDA's there are. His failure to legally release folks from NDA's is disqualifying. We don't know what lurks behind all of those closed doors. Releasing a few, as the former mayor has done, is a laughable.

He was a republican until two seconds ago, supporting the GOP cut taxes, deregulate insane agenda. He doubled down on racial profiling in New York which does not work. He stubbornly insists, even while allegedly apologizing, that stop and frisk did work. Even though crime fell everywhere without stop and frisk. For facts' sake, crime continues to fall in NYC long after the end of that stupid, bigoted policy.

It is a GOP trait to insist policies work despite overwhelming evidence. The former Mayor exhibits this trait daily.

The former mayor is on tape sounding like a plutocrat, dissing Barack Obama.

Moreover, this country does not wake up and say, no we can't.

In 2007, there were so many making your allegation against then Senator Obama. The naysayers said his healthcare plan was going nowhere.

Now, in 2020, Obamacare exists and is functioning despite every GOP attempt to gut it. The calls that Barack Obama was making unrealistic promises were many.

The GOP lives to make unrealistic promises and then try and bully the country into doing them (see the neverending push to outlaw reproductive freedom, going so far as attacking birth control is the most salient example).

Why should democrats not push our policy ideas? Should we cede the field to GOP mentality? There is evidence something like M4A will work since such systems work better than ours in every first world country.

Selling our nomination will depress our turnout. We are very concerned about corruption already. Putting a bow on top of it, with slick ads featuring a dull candidate won't make it more appealing.

[blm]

3. No one is factoring in Republicans' Operation Chaos Numbers.

I think they will be bigger than people think. There is no GOP presidential primary there, as the GOP declared there would be no GOP presidential primary.

That frees up a LOT of Limbaugh devotees in SC to carry out the chaos.

[Tweedy]

14. And SC is one of their favorite playgrounds 😬

[TwilightZone]

4. I'm not sure he even wanted to win. I think he wanted the platform.

Running gives him much more visibility to hack away at Trump and he can basically dump as much cash into that as he wants. Otherwise, he'd be limited by donation limits, etc.

I'm not sure it was ever about the nomination, though he does seem to be concerned with a potential Sanders nomination. If that's the case, BB running is part of the problem as he seems to be drawing heavily from Biden.

[BusyBeingBest]

9. People have a hard time believing he wants to be President--

I don't understand that. I don't think it's a vanity run to get attention, or to just go after Trump--he could do that all he wanted in advertising and PAC support and organizations. Much easier and more pleasant than what he's doing now, working an exhausting schedule trying to catch up to established candidates and exposing himself to charges of racism and sexism and the potential ruin of a good reputation.

[TwilightZone]

10. I don't necessarily have a hard time believing he wants to be President...

but I do think getting rid of Trump might take priority. I could be wrong - he does seem pretty engaged in the race now, but as I noted, part of that might be some belief that Sanders may win the nomination and lose the GE, which would mean priority one wasn't accomplished. We all agree that Trump has to go.

[Tweedy]

11. I thought that too

Until I heard Mayor Bloomberg said the following:

"Well, to start, my first campaign platform would be to defend the banks, and you know how well that's gonna sell in this country."

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.gq.com/story/bloomberg-save-the-banks/amp

Your platform goes over like a lead balloon Mr. Mayor.

I do believe Mayor Bloomberg dislikes his incompetence-in-chief. Nonetheless, he could have spent as much money as he wanted, courtesy of citizens united, without engaging in this attempt to buy the democratic nomination.

[TwilightZone]

12. Eh, I consider his audience.

That's the kind of stuff you say when your audience is a bunch of bank guys. Doesn't make it right, of course, but I understand why he said it in the context of the speech. Politicians pander all the time, plus it's about the least surprising statement of the campaign.

"he could have spent as much money as he wanted"

Sure, but that's not the same as the exposure of running for president, particularly in a race as media-obsessed-over as this one.

[Tweedy]

13. His record supports the comment

The more I look in his direction the less I like & we started with stop & frisk 😬

He is better than the current occupant, simply because he is not a sadist. There is nastiness in his record, but it seems to come from a nerdish insecurity.

He might have been pandering too, I suppose, when he told them he really preferred Senator Romney over president Obama.

It irks me no end that former Mayor Bloomberg is running ads that suggest he was president Obama's BFF. The record does not reflect that in the least. It is highly misleading, if not outright false, advertising.

[TwilightZone]

15. Of course it does.

That was my point. It's probably the least surprising "gotcha" moment of the entire campaign.

[Tweedy]

17. Misleading ads?

Are a gotcha? Think I missed something.

[TwilightZone]

18. His comment about defending the banks.

It doesn't bother me much because it's completely unsurprising and kind of pales in comparison to some of the other stuff coming out of his past.

[Progressive2020]

5. All True

Whatever happens, it is going to be an interesting week in American politics. I have seen various poll numbers on South Carolina, and they are not clear to me. One thing that is clear is that South Carolina is Joe Biden's best chance to really get back in this race. Sanders goal might not be to beat Joe in South Carolina, but rather to run a strong second and not let Biden run away with the lion's share of delegates. This battle is far from over, I think.

[Tweedy]

8. Agree Mayor Bloomberg erred

Think his error was thinking we would sell him the Democratic nomination.

I hope you are right about former VP Biden. Joe Biden is my second choice; although imho, any one of them, would be preferable to his incompetence-in-chief. Bloomberg is at the bottom with me, hold your nose kind of bottom.