"... only to realize that you’re waking up in a nightmare. Which helps explain why Democrats across the country will soon find themselves with a newfound appreciation for the virtues of one Mike Bloomberg, former Republican mayor of New York and billionaire founder of a financial data services empire. He might not have been exactly what they had in mind, but by Super Tuesday he’ll look like Brad Pitt. What people don’t yet seem to have grasped is this: Bloomberg is going to spend an astronomical amount of money on this race. Probably at least $1 billion. Maybe twice that. Possibly even more. Numbers like that upend every model of every presidential race in history. He can buy every news adjacency on cable and local television stations from now until November and not make a dent in his net worth. U.S. politics has never seen such financial throw weight in a presidential campaign.... It isn’t hard to see the nomination as Bloomberg’s for the taking. Democrats believe they will lose to Trump with Sanders or Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Many harbor 'reservations' about Biden. And they know that Buttigieg isn’t going to win the Masters the first time he plays the course. Yes, Bloomberg is a bit dull. He is not exactly charismatic. And he can be a scold. But all the things that would have made him tedious in previous presidential election campaigns make him appealing now.... Trump’s greatest vulnerability is the anxiety he creates... Bloomberg doesn’t make anyone nervous...."
From
"Mike Bloomberg will soon be Democrats’ dream candidate" (WaPo).
We talked about this 6 days ago —
here. Back then, I started thinking Bloomberg can win, and it's been firming up into a prediction that he will win. But you know me: I'm for Boring.
ADDED: Click on my
"I'm for Boring" tag and you'll get to
my post from last October when I revealed — after keeping it secret for 3 years — who I voted for in the 2016 election:
I am not a Trump fan. I voted against the guy. I have voted in 12 presidential elections, and in 9 of them, I voted for the Democrat. In the 21st century, there have been 5 presidential elections, and I've voted for the Democrat in 3 of them. There have been 2 Presidents in the 21st century who have won twice and neither of them did I vote for twice. I am a true swing voter (in a swing state). All I want is a very competent, reliable, sensible, good person who can handle the presidency. I don't want your ugliness and hysteria. I don't want to see my fellow citizens cranked up into a frenzy. The very reasons I voted against Trump are getting cooked up into reasons to vote for him — by you, you idiots.
Posts
123 comments:
Bloomberg grabs the ladies by the pussy.
He’s the stop and frisk guy. His opponents will let voters know...
Yep, we know you -- you've voted for every Democrat Presidential candidate since Hubert Horatio Humphrey.
The caucus system favors the nutz.
Politicians and baby nappies should be changed frequently for the same reason....
Mark Twain.
He can buy every news adjacency on cable and local television stations from now until November and not make a dent in his net worth.
Dear WaPo editor; please explain the definition of "adjacency" as used in this sentence? Is this your idea of a contraction for "Ad Agency" or "ads adjacent to news programs"?
Also, there are few things more annoying than watching political ads from now until November.
Yeah yeah. Dreamy. But what are his pronouns?
And they know that Buttigieg isn’t going to win the Masters the first time he plays the course...
A bad analogy. More like two weeks in Cleveland.
Hasn’t Steyer cornered the local TV market already? What’s Bloomberg going to buy?
The nanny Nazi, no straws or large sodas for you!
Yep, that is such a HUGE winning message against Trump!
I’m not the only one here who believes you’ll talk yourself into whoever it is for reasons to be named later...
Doesn't anyone remember that Clinton spent far more than Trump and still lost? Bloomberg can buy all the advertising he wants and one tweet from Trump will be what people remember. Some of us get annoyed by too much advertising.
I don't want a President that bans everything he doesn't like.
This is truly amusing. Trump didn't win by spending money. He won by 1) having an incompetent opponent, 2) talking about things that people were interested in.
Bloomberg won't have an incompetent opponent. Trump will get 35-40% of the african american vote (and Pelosi will use the N word). 30% of Democrats will stay home, and 15% of Republicans will vote Bloomberg.
He will rewrite the electoral rules alright. He will spend $2 billion and lose. How much has Steyer spent? $116 million. 12%.
He has already made the 47%/deplorables error. He will make some people very rich, and have their unending support as long as the cash continues to flow.
I hate to break it to Bloomberg, but deluging the American voter with zillions of ads could potentially have the opposite effect. But go right ahead.
Bloomberg is a pussy-grabber, but he's now a D Pussy-grabber, so its OK.
Well-to-do liberals and soccer moms love Bloomie. But there's no reason for black folks or Hispanics to like him (or the Bernie Bros). Biden is already getting the Establishment vote and if he can get enough blacks and working class whites, he'll win. IOW, Biden has the establishment lane locked up, and there's no reason to go for Bloomberg. The only alternative is Warren/Bernie but that lane is the loser lane. The Bernie don't really want to win, if they did, they wouldn't support Bernie. They just want to feel "rebellious" and "edgy" and then after they lose, they'll all vote for Biden.
Todd said...
The nanny Nazi, no straws or large sodas for you!
__________&&&&&&&&&&&&&00000
@David Begley - please show up at Caucus with large slurpee and multiple straws for
You'll remove my plastic straw out of my cold dead hands.
Bloomburg is yet another East Coast authoritarian/totalitarian.
"I started thinking Bloomberg can win, and it's been firming up into a prediction that he will win. But you know me: I'm for Boring."
The banality of evil, etc. Boring doesn't automatically mean good for the nation or that it respects Civil Rights and the rule of law. Obama was "boring" too, and his policies left a lot of economic and social wreckage.
The left always crank themselves into a frenzy, regardless of how actually boring the GOP guy is. Why would you allow yourself to be manipulated by the unhinged reaction from the left?
Liberal Women only dislike "Pussy-grabbers" when the media tells them to. They had no problem supporting Clinton, or Hillary who enabled Clinton. Ted Kennedy killed a women, but liberal women were giving him blow-jobs till the day he died. Whenever I heard some left-wing female ranting about Trump, I just laugh.
Nothing will drive the red-staters to the polls like anti-gun Mike Bloomberg.
Is Bloomberg a stronger candidate than Hillary Clinton?
If yes, why isn't he President already?
Clinton outspent Trump nearly 2:1 as I recall. Guess what? She still lost. Bloomberg, if he had his way, would ban straws, large sodas, fast food, guns of most (if not all) types (except for the ones his bodyguards carry), and plastic bags. Somehow I don't think any of those will be a winning message with Trump voters or Independents. Maybe a few NeverTrumper weenies will embrace it, but that's because all this time they've just been Commies practicing taqqiya.
Just because Hillary learned nothing from 2016 doesn't mean Bloomberg is that obtuse. He's smart enough to realize that Trump won while spending half as much money and getting millions fewer (popular) votes. If rather than blanketing the airwaves with ads he could figure out how to jam Steyer's ads he might have a chance.
Why should anyone vote for Bloomie when we have TRUMP?????? We shouldn't!
Increasingly I see the election as I see the Super Bowl. It has nothing to do with “sports” or “the democratic process” as we commoners understand them, but rather everything to do with the vast harvesting by the entertainment industry, through an incredibly regimented and corporatized (word?) process, of money. A metric s*** ton of money. And the panicked spending of same.
Why Trump is less unattractive than many others? Not that he had his own money. Not that he can Tweet his way around opposing ad buys. But simply that he cares about the country, will fight for it, and calls BS when he sees it. And he sees it everywhere.
I don’t see Bloomberg buying the crawl-over-broken-glass vote. I don’t even see him attracting the keep-the-streets-open-after-a-snowstorm vote. But, sure, it’s a free country, Mike. Spend away.
Bloomberg's ads are extremely anodyne and boring. The ads generically tout his competence and his compassion and they could have been made in 2006. "Mike Bloomberg did it for New York, and he can do it for the nation!" Whoever conceived of these ads should be fired immediately.
This is the Age of Trump. Voters may think they want boring non-ideological competence from their leaders, but you can't just say you're competent and expect people to believe it. Bloomberg needs to do something much, much better if he wants to capture the voters' imagination. Trump proved that winning an election has less to do with money than with energetic campaigning and simple, consistent messaging. Trump's shoe-string campaign was seriously visionary; he got his message out cheaply with a combination of raucous rallies, free TV appearances and tweets. And his message was simple and directly squarely at a huge segment of battleground state voters: the USA is getting screwed by trade practices and uncontrolled immigration.
Right now Bloomberg's just throwing money away.
“And they know that Buttigieg isn’t going to win the Masters the first time he plays the course”
You know, in my lifetime, every Democrat presidential success has been someone who won the Masters the first time he played the course. The responsible, boring, uncharismatic picks have all been disastrous candidates. But who knows? Based on past predictions and results, absolutely no one knows anything.
Speaking of pussy grabbing, I was listening to the Penn Jillette (Of Penn and Teller) Podcast yesterday.
Penn HATES, HATES, HATES!!!!! Donald Trump and never misses an opportunity to say so. Probably because Trump fired him on The Apprentice.
So they were talking about actor Jon Hamm who supposedly has a huge penis. They were talking about how if he goes into a bar all the women will be wanting to "brush up against him" to cop a feel.
I kept thinking "c'mon, c'mon, say it Penn" or at least let the sidekick say it: "Women would let Jon Hamm grab them by the pussy"
Alas, it was not to be.
The Podcast, Penn's Sunday School is pretty good except 1) He hates Trump and always makes sure we know it. 2) he always spends 5 minutes or so telling us about his diet and what he ate recently, or a restaurant or something. You would never guess he is a vegan! Good for him, great that he lost a lot of weight on the diet, fine to talk about occasionally but like the Trump derangement it gets tiresome
The other thing that drags the show down is he is Johnny Carson and he has someone who acts as Ed McMahon. I prefer a less master/subordinate relationship where instead of laughing their ass off at everyting the host says, the other one can say "Taint funny, McGee" or "You're full of shit, John"
Like the noagendashow.com
John Henry
Bloomberg is skipping the first four primaries/caucuses. Bold & t
risky. Let's see how that works out for him.
He might spend his way to massive wins in NY, Cali and nowhere else.
Hopefully, Bernie beats him and he runs 3rd party.
And apologies to the women here. Not all women want to brush up against Jon Hamm's giant penis. Not even most women.
But some do. When you are a celebrity like he is, some women will even let you grab them by the pussy.
(Psssst.... how many people knew Hamm was really a thespian?)
John Henry
“Nothing will drive the red-staters to the polls like anti-gun Mike Bloomberg”
Agree 100%. But that won’t matter. What will matter are the purple, swing, state voters. And I expect that that will help Trump too. We are, right now, living in pro-gun AZ, and I don’t see Bloomberg’s sponsorship of draconian anti 2nd Amdt laws helping his election prospects here. But I expect that the biggest effect is going to be in VA, where his millions bought a Dem governor and legislature, which are now aggressively going after disarmament. That is the place where I expect to see Trump voters willing to crawl across broken glass to prevent more liberal judges from being appointed, and the Supreme Court reversing the Heller and esp McDonald cases, instead of expanding them.
he was one of the villains in baby driver, technically Jamie foxx was the lead one, he was sort of a parody of don draper, a former stock broker, who fell into kevin spacey's heist crews,
before mad men, he was a lefty college professor on the unit, Bloomberg had a bit of a #metoo problem, back to his time at Solomon bros no?
Imprecatory. It’s a word that needs dusting off and being used to describe what Althouse doesn’t want.
She said, “I don't want your ugliness and hysteria. I don't want to see my fellow citizens cranked up into a frenzy.”
The professor gets her chance to not vote for Trump. America's working poor will just have to wait another generation before they can receive proper value for their labor. They'll go back to marginal status, unable to maintain marriages or earn enough to raise children.
I'm pretty sure most voters are for boring. Most people even. As most people just want to eat, drink and be merry. Not think about politics or worry about such things.
They all want boring.
Which is why the Democrats turn every single republican administration into constant drama.
Want a break from all the drama? Vote Democrat.
well, democrats have been saying FOR YEARS, that:
A) There is TOO MUCH MONEY in politics
B BILLIONAIRES are EVIL
So, Who BETTER to represent (hypocrisy that IS) the Democrat party; than Bloomberg?
Trump and Bernie can ride the memes, negative or positive. Bloomberg has a glass jaw. He can throw in endless amounts of money but he can't, personally, fight in that very bloody arena anymore than Dukakis or Dole or McCain or Romney could.
Blogger Bruce Hayden said...
“Nothing will drive the red-staters to the polls like anti-gun Mike Bloomberg”
Agree 100%. But that won’t matter. What will matter are the purple, swing, state voters.
Like Virginia which now has 100 cities and counties with gun sanctuary county/city laws? I'm not sure how many cities and counties (larger cities are the equivalent of their own county) but it can't be many more than 100.
Virginia Beach, the 2nd largest city, passed one last week and apparently it was not even close.
John Henry
Bloomberg already has the humorless cold vote locked up.
Not all women want to brush up against Jon Hamm's giant penis. Not even most women.
Lt Dish did in "MASH."
Humorless scold !
Kyzer SoSay said... Clinton outspent Trump nearly 2:1 as I recall.
and don't forget the Actual Reason Why Hillary didn't campaign in Wisconsin, etc.
They found, that the more interaction voters had with her; THE LESS THEY LIKED HER
How is Bloomberg (or, ANY Democrat) going to NOT be like that?
On the otherhand, Trump's disapproval numbers stay constant (or slightly declining)
Is there ANYONE, ANY ONE ON EARTH; that is More inclined to vote Democrat, after exposure?
I just watched Bloomberg’s campaign manager on CNN. He stated that Trump voters don’t understand the damage he is doing to them.
$2,000,000,000.00 down the toilet.
It would be interesting having Bloomberg confronted and have to justify his official and public decision in this era of "Fake News" to have his entire news division ONLY report negatively on Trump while giving first himself a complete pass quickly followed by an updated order to leave all the dems alone!!
Its astonishing how the dems/LLR's continue to wander blindly into Trump's political and rhetorical and meme "kill zone".
7 January Breitbart says 118 cities/counties have passed sanctuary laws.
Wikipedia says VA has 95 counties plus 38 independent cities.
118/133 = 89%
Think Bloomberg and turn that blue? Or even purple?
John Henry
Trump is a very competent, reliable, sensible, good person who can handle the presidency.
And he’s proven that.
Just trying to imagine Bernie Bros hungering for another shit sandwich. Also hard to see the squad and their fans being satisfied with Bloomie. Add to that a low level of motivation for black and Latino voters and you have the recipe for a DNC disaster. All these factors will make the former Republican mayor a bitter pill to swallow.
Bernie vs Trump would be a very interesting race. Too bad the elites still don't understand.
Bloomberg is a stinking runt of a fascist pig. Just saying.
Bernie's policies are terrible. But he's sincere. People like sincere. Trump is also sincere. I watched a Bloomberg ad yesterday with him doing the plain button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up. So fake. I became curious about what Trump wore to the Iowa State Fair. A MAGA hat with a blazer and a white polo. Sincere.
Plaid, not plain.
Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...
...and you have the recipe for a DNC disaster.
1/13/20, 10:51 AM
No group has worked harder for disaster these past few years nor deserves it more!
I am not a Trump fan. I voted against the guy. I have voted in 12 presidential elections, and in 9 of them, I voted for the Democrat. In the 21st century, there have been 5 presidential elections, and I've voted for the Democrat in 3 of them.
We don't care who Althouse voted for. She gets a pass, because she is a sentinel, guarding our cherished First Amendment rights, and fueling the free exchange of ideas on this fine blog.
However, I think she should vote for Trump this year and will vote for Trump this year.
Does money correlate with victory (in the general)?
Bloomberg has all the right characteristics - in particular, mainstream, middle of the road views on nearly all financial, social, and international relations items - without all the nasty corruption and nasty personal baggage of Hillary Clinton. He seems to me the Dems best chance at defeating Trump.
I'm not convinced the Democrat voters will embrace him. Too many of them want to elect a socialist.
Bernie is a socialist joke. If he and his minions ever got power, though, it wouldn't be a joke any more. It would descend into civil unrest and violence, just like in Venezuela. For Bernie, Venezuela is a not "life-lesson' story, it's a "how-to" story.
The good news is, Bernie can't win the general. Rich, Left-Wing New Yorkers will vote against Bernie, because they fear he will actually confiscate their wealth. Still, even if he gets 42-46% of the vote, it's too much and remains a cause for concern.
Could the local ad market absorb a billion dollars of Bloomberg buy when Steyer and professor and Mary Ann (the rest) are already there? That space is finite. The entire local digital market is around $29 billion. At some point well south of that number saturation is achieved. Slightly above that number you start to piss people off.
Right above that point people start to hate the sight of your face...
Fuzzy Zoeller won The Masters the first time he played. So it can happen.
Now there's a matched set: Mayor Pete and Fuzzy.
All I want is a very competent, reliable, sensible, good person who can handle the presidency.
And yet you keep voting for Democrats.
Bloomberg will spend vast amounts of money (he spent 100 million to buy the New York Mayor's office), but he cannot win a nationwide election. His money will not overcome his hostility to guns, his cozying to China, or his autocratic tendencies.
Bernie makes "gaff a day" Biden look like a rhodes scholar.
The more Bloomberg spends, the most he chips away at Biden, the more it is a good thing.
"All I want is a very competent, reliable, sensible, good person who can handle the presidency. I don't want your ugliness and hysteria. I don't want to see my fellow citizens cranked up into a frenzy. The very reasons I voted against Trump are getting cooked up into reasons to vote for him — by you, you idiots."
You should stop lying to yourself Ann.
You want to vote for someone so you can affirm your positive view about yourself and how superior you are to the deplorables.
Democrats were caught on video admitting they were paying for violence at Trump rallies and you still rationalized a vote for Hillary claiming words like sensible and good person.
You know the media is a sham and yet you vote for their candidate every time so you can read calm and tranquil news stories.
Self honesty is the first step.
Every time a political commercial comes on now, I mute it. I must have seen Tom Steyer's face a hundred times and heard less than a hundred words from his mouth.
Money does not buy elections any more than it buys good schools. (A school that spends little money but has students who are smart and want to do well will be a good school. A school that spends a lot of money but has students who aren't too bright and don't care much will be a bad school.)
I'm waiting for Elizabeth Warren to release a candle that smells like her vagina before I rule her out.
Shouting Thomas said...
Trump is a very competent, reliable, sensible, good person who can handle the presidency.
And he’s proven that.
But the media and the intellectual class are really upset. Trump upsets the hierarchy.
It really boils down to peer groups and social standing.
How can you read Weiwei's piece and find Bloomberg appealing?
Boring is over, whoever wins. It was nice while it lasted.
well, democrats have been saying FOR YEARS, that:
A) There is TOO MUCH MONEY in politics
B BILLIONAIRES are EVIL
For almost eight years, Democrats said that W's wars were evil. The, when Obama continued them, they discovered that they weren't so bad after all, as long as the right people were making the decisions.
Bloomberg makes anyone who thinks there's a point to the Second Amendment nervous.
All I want is a very competent, reliable, sensible, good person who can handle the presidency.
Ann, if ANY Democrat wins the presidency, the people who run everything will be Democrats!! They want to regulate and control everything. How can you talk about "competent, reliable..." without talking about the policies that every Democrat in the race is espousing? 2020 is not even like 2016 or 2012; the Democrats are now out in the open calling for policies that would open the border, bankrupt the government and send the economy into a tailspin.
So what difference does it make which Democrat is actually elected?
I refuse to get involved in next-president discussions until sometime this fall, but I will make two observations about Bloomberg.
1. Serious people like him because they respect him. As mayor he had priorities -- public safety, school improvement -- that he pursued doggedly, albeit to limited effect. He is comfortable in his skin, and he knows who he is. The people who like him are serious themselves, well-educated and likely to describe themselves as centrists and former left-wingers.
2. Bloomberg returned to his company after he left the mayor's job, and he's not a lead-from-behind guy. Bloomberg News now reflects his point of view which, when it comes to Donald Trump, is bone-deep and visceral revulsion, or perhaps just plain obsessive hatred. It's odd that a man, very successful by any measure, should care so much about anyone else, even a president. My guess is that Trump's lack of self-discipline is at the core of it.
I think Althouse meant that Little Mike will win the Democrat nomination, not the election. She’s obviously voting in Democrat primary. IMO, Little Mike will fade. He’s currently the flavor of the week but the more he speaks the more eyes will glaze over and the more he will be seen as another Harris when it comes to retail politics. Bernie will get the win. And name Harris as his VP.
Bernie and Bloomie have something in common, and it’s not just that they own multiple houses (Bloomberg has six). The most recent political offices they’ve held were not held as Democrats. Says something about the Democrats in the post-Obama era.
In 2008 Rudy Giuliani also had a strategy of focusing on the later primaries and pretty much ignoring Iowa and the early primaries. Hope Bloomie’s later primary focus works just as well!
Bloomberg is going to spend an astronomical amount of money on this race. Probably at least $1 billion. Maybe twice that. Possibly even more. Numbers like that upend every model of every presidential race in history. He can buy every news adjacency on cable and local television stations from now until November and not make a dent in his net worth. U.S. politics has never seen such financial throw weight in a presidential campaign....
Yes, but we HAVE seen it in Senate campaigns. And pretty much every time, the candidate doing it has lost.
At some point, you actually have "spent enough money" on your advertising. Bloomberg's problem is going to be that everyone has heard of him, but a majority of the country doesn't like him.
Because he's an obnoxious, amoral, self-righteous prick and busybody nanny
“I don't want to see my fellow citizens cranked up into a frenzy”
Sorry. But I think that they should be cranked up into a frenzy. The stench of the corruption lingering from the Obama Administration is overwhelming. We found out this weekend that ICIG Atkinson used to work as NSD AAG Mary McCord’s personal in-house attorney (Like Lisa Page did for DD McCabe). She had all of the DOJ people working on the 4 Carter Page FISA warrant applications under her, and almost assuredly was the last signature on the applications before they went to the AG or DAG for their statute required certifications. She then joined Lawfare, and then went to work for Schifty’s HSCI. Should anyone be surprised that HSCI very likely wrote the whistleblower complaint that is the basis for the impeachment, that ICIG Atkinson had the form changed to allow 2nd and 3rd level uncorroborated hearsay, and then sent the complaint to Schifty and his HSCI, despite that committee not having legal jurisdiction over the phone call, and the referral being considered illegitimate by both the DNI and DOJ? And now we find. Then, it comes out that the FISC has tasked one of the biggest FISA abuse deniers, whose job had been as FISC appointed amicus, to justify FISA abuse, to clean up the same FISA abuse that he spent years denying before that court. We still don’t know where the Weiner laptop disappeared to, where Gisele Maxwell (Epstein’s pimp) and Joseph Misfyp are, or who killed Epstein, and how they pulled it off in the middle of a federal prison. We are just now starting to see the millions and billions siphoned off of our multitrillion dollar budgets by and through the family members of prominent politicians, like Hunter Biden. The list goes on and on.
And you don’t want to see your fellow citizens cranked up into a frenzy? Does this mean that you approve of the rampant corruption by the Obama Administration and Deep State fellow travelers and embeds? Is this how you think that this country and our government should operate?
"by you, you idiots."
I think you meant deplorables.
By Election Day, every anti-Trump voter in every precinct will have been contacted repeatedly, and then driven to the polls, [twice] if need be.
There was a copy error, [fixed].
As mayor he had priorities -- public safety, school improvement
...,soda consumption.
Does money correlate with victory (in the general)?
Not as discussed. Campaign funding is similar to education funding: a certain amount is necessary but beyond that it matters little.
“Yes, but we HAVE seen it in Senate campaigns. And pretty much every time, the candidate doing it has lost”
I disagree. Two counter examples from the two states that we live in: Jon Tester and Kirsten Sinema. Both ran far more TV ads than their Republican opponents.
Blogger Leland said...
He can buy every news adjacency on cable and local television stations from now until November and not make a dent in his net worth.
Dear WaPo editor; please explain the definition of "adjacency" as used in this sentence? Is this your idea of a contraction for "Ad Agency" or "ads adjacent to news programs"?
They mean he could buy every ad spot run during every new program in America
I don't know if the claim is true. I do know that the act would be a prefect demonstration of the law of diminishing returns
So that's the view from the Bush camp. The author, John Prescott Ellis, is a Bush man. Literally. He's W and Jeb's first cousin.
We had a shot at boring in 2016. His name was JEB! We all know how that worked out.
We had a look at how much difference big money made in 2016. See "JEB!" again.
Also, everyone who's had their opinion changed by a TV political ad raise your hand.
Bruce Hayden said...
“Yes, but we HAVE seen it in Senate campaigns. And pretty much every time, the candidate doing it has lost”
I disagree. Two counter examples from the two states that we live in: Jon Tester and Kirsten Sinema. Both ran far more TV ads than their Republican opponents.
Michael Huffington, CA Senate, 1994. Linda McMahon CT 2010 & 2012. They both spent Bloomberg levels of cash.
How much did Tester and Sinema spend in 2018?
Blogger stevew said...
Does money correlate with victory (in the general)?
Bloomberg has all the right characteristics - in particular, mainstream, middle of the road views on nearly all financial, social, and international relations items - without all the nasty corruption and nasty personal baggage of Hillary Clinton. He seems to me the Dems best chance at defeating Trump.
Bloomberg appears to be owned by the Chinese communist gov't. That's lots of nasty baggage to dig in.
He's got a nickname...Mini Mike Bloomberg.
Bruce Hayden said...
“Nothing will drive the red-staters to the polls like anti-gun Mike Bloomberg”
Agree 100%. But that won’t matter. What will matter are the purple, swing, state voters.
For "red-state votes", read "anyone who wants their state to be a 'red-state' in 2020".
I donated to a candidate in 1994, solely because I heard his opponent's ads on the radio one too many times (my guy won, in a big upset).
Between stop and frisk, grabbing peoples guns, grabbing peoples straws, and grabbing people's sodas, Bloomberg at the top would lead to a crushing GOP win at every level, in most of the country.
And just in time for redistricting, too. So please, Democrats, go with Bloomberg
As Mayor Bloomberg did lots of the things they said Trump would do. Worst - imho - is that he bought off the city council to change the law that limited him to two terms.
If Bloomberg wins the nomination, the Dems are gonna have real trouble turning out the Bernie bro voter base. "The better, richer billionaire" slogan is not gonna win over the hard core commies. Although I admit they seem fine with Bernies millions.
Bloomberg isn't boring. He has the charisma of an ice cube, he is Romney without the charm, but his impulse for government tyranny is first rate.
It'd be awesome if Bloomberg and Steyer spend their way into the last two Dems.
Bernie and his Bros will be faced with supporting one of the Billionaires. It might send them over the edge.
“How much did Tester and Sinema spend in 2018?”
Don’t know, but do remember both running significantly more TV ads than their opponents. Tester’s TV ads routinely sandwiched his opponent’s ads in single commercial breaks, and this would happen several times an hour. Some of that with Sinema, but not as much.
"Bloomberg is going to spend an astronomical amount of money on this race. Probably at least $1 billion. Maybe twice that. Possibly even more...."
I don't know about nationally or any state besides California, but it's funny how wealthy candidates with self-funded campaigns do poorly here. In years past, we had Ron Unz and Michael Huffington, and neither could buy victories. It's a real argument against the money-in-politics meme.
Being able to raise money seems to be the better play. Trump was able to counter Clinton's war chest with the free publicity he got just by being raucous Trump. This year, by contrast, he will be very well funded. I hope Bloomberg doesn't stand a chance.
Advertising has rapidly diminishing returns, especially political advertising for candidate. I think Bloomberg and Steyer both are already reaching the plateau of beneficial effect. The first $100 million is a lot more effective than the next $100 million, and the $100 million after that is probably detrimental. You see 5 Bloomberg ads, you might consider voting for him, but if you see 5 a day for 2 months, you might consider voting for anyone but Bloomberg.
I remember the advertising for 2016 general election- here in eastern TN, Hillary Clinton television ads outnumbered Trump television ads about 50 to 1 (probably purchased at the network level, not local TV for both). In fact, I remember only one Trump ad on television, and it ran twice that I saw.
I think Bloomberg is likely to spend a billion dollars on ads during the primary, and probably only win delegates in New York state, and probably not even there. He would be a formidable candidate in the general election, but independents don't vote in primaries- fringes of the base do.
I don't see Bloomberg winning in the rust belt states Trump flipped. He have to do that to win the Electoral College.
Are black voters going to turn out big for Bloomberg? Why?
If Bloomberg wins the nomination? The first time he and Trump physically appear on the same stage, the race will be over.
Trump's tie is taller than Bloomberg.
“Between stop and frisk, grabbing peoples guns, grabbing peoples straws, and grabbing people's sodas...”
I don’t really have a problem with Stop and Frisk, as it was officially sanctioned by the NYPD. It worked. I remember being pulled over on multiple occasions as a teenager, on the grounds of being a punk teenager up to no good, and probably up until I was maybe 21. Then, miraculously, it ended. Now with three grandsons in HS, I understand why it was probably for the good. They are so friggen stupid at that age. Almost brain dead. The middle one “stole” the Polaris around midnight one night, and with his buddy went roaring through the neighborhood, then down to the local 24 hour convenience store, where they hung out for a half hour or so. This happens to be the most dangerous place in the county for teenagers to hang out, because it is where city, county, and state cops all hang out waiting for something to happen. We all had a good laugh at their stupidity. And they didn’t get close to the keys again for the rest of the week they were visiting. They deserved to have been pulled over for being stupid punk teenagers, but just got lucky. Or maybe unlucky - because spending the night in jail for kids that age can be good for them.
Message advertising like Mike is doing doesn't win votes, IMO. Negative advertising works, but you need a real nasty thing to publicize about your opponent. Of course, all those nasty things about Trump are old news.
Here in Nevada Hillary ran an ad which was a retrospective of H>er speeches over the years. What it showed was that she had been a pain in the ass H>er whole life. Anyway, the ad moved the needle in an unintended direction, so after that H>er ads were all about what a jerk Trump was, without showing Hillary at all. Harry Reid delivered the state for H>er.
Bay Area Guy said...
Bernie and his Bros will be faced with supporting one of the Billionaires.
Why?
Bernie is not a member of the Democrat party. Never has been.
He can just say "I've always been an independent, I have no dog in this fight. I'm staying home.
John Henry
He stated that Trump voters don’t understand the damage he is doing to them.
You know, telling me I'm stupid is a sure way to get me to vote for that candidate. It's a special skill leftists have.
"I'm for Boring"
We know, we know. It's all an America Idol contest for you. Let's have somebody competent! serious!
Anyway, is Mike B boring enough with his desire for open borders and using California as a model?
Is Bernie scary enough to scare you into voting for Trump?
Let's talk money and down ticket races. Will the DNC go all in for Bernie, should he win the nomination? Or will they spend all their $ on Senate and House races? Will they ramp up their voter fraud operations for Bernie? If not will that leave their Congress critters hanging? What coattails will Bloomberg have? Will he leave all the other Democrat money free for turning the Senate?
I think they'll go for the woman, the woman of color, but it doesn't matter.
I think Bloomberg killed his candidacy when he made his round of public appearances apologizing for having pursued the policies he was most praised for when he was mayor of New York.
No one believes this was sincere. He lowered himself to be just another disappointment.
Can we stop with the short jokes? Mitch Daniel is short, but he was a good governor and might have made a good presidential candidate. As president of Purdue, he has presided over an eight-year freeze in tuition, fees and room and board costs.
I can deal with short. Arrogant, stupid, nasty -- those are the qualities that bother me.
Boring/safe isn't as good as winning
...is Trump like that thing discussed yesterday that's too good to want?
Winning is exciting.
Trump's presidency has been exciting.
"Boring" means safe/status quo
"Safe" isn't as nice as winning.
....this, assuming a Bloomberg type would do no harm.
There's a Big Nanna/Big Brother packed inside Micro Mike.
Seems like the Dems biggest fear is that one of their many fine candidates will become their nominee.
"I don’t really have a problem with Stop and Frisk, as it was officially sanctioned by the NYPD. It worked."
Same here. But, as described by Hager, above, Bloomie back pedaled on stop and frisk to avoid the dreaded R word.
Pussy.
@John Henry,
"He can just say "I've always been an independent, I have no dog in this fight. I'm staying home."
True. But that's the equivalent of helping to elect Trump, which will cause the Democrat Party to expel him.
Undeniably, Bernie has a big chunk of the Dem Party (30-40%)
Bernie Options if Bloomy or Steyer get nomination:
1. Supports Billionaire (goes against his entire campaign, alienates fervent followers)
2. Opposes Billionaire (helps elect Trump)
3. Withholds support (helps elect Trump)
4. Runs as 3rd Party independent (helps elect Trump).
If Bloomy or Steyer get the nod, Bernie will be one unhappy camper.
But when Socialists are unhappy, life is usually good.
And, Trump hits back against "Mini-Mike"
Bloomberg's television ads dealing with health care are, like much "liberal" blather on health care, virtually textbook examples of the "Argument from Pity" fallacy. Since the Dems are big into fallacious arguments. Nanny State Mike should be popular with them,
I think Bloomberg killed his candidacy when he made his round of public appearances apologizing for having pursued the policies he was most praised for when he was mayor of New York.
No one believes this was sincere. He lowered himself to be just another disappointment..
I really hope that's true. Certainly it's diminished him, and he wasn't all that big to begin with. I think if he were at his full capacity, he wouldn't have made the calculation to sacrifice his dignity on a slim hope of winning more fame and power.
You're not going to get boring with Bloomberg. His penchant for paternalism is going to cause all sorts of drama. What are Bloomberg's positions on:
* Healthcare
* Gun Control
* Climate Change
Yeah... he may be personally boring, but he's not drama free.
If you want drama free, you need a Calvin Coolidge...
“Between stop and frisk, grabbing peoples guns, grabbing peoples straws, and grabbing people's sodas...”
I don’t really have a problem with Stop and Frisk, as it was officially sanctioned by the NYPD.
Neither do I. The Democrat "black" political Establishment, OTOH, has a major problem with it. And Bloomberg isn't going to win without them.
Bloomberg's problem is that only "rich white liberals" are going to like him. That's not an electorially winning strategy. Just as Fauxcahontas
“Bloomberg doesn’t make anyone nervous....”
Unless you want to drink a Big Gulp. Or carry a firearm. Or exercise any other freedoms.
Michael Haz said...
Mike Bloomberg is Richard Nixon. No idea who is Spiro Agnew in this play.
Nixon didn't apologize for being for "law and order", he ran on it
"Bloomberg doesn’t make anyone nervous."
That's a Pauline Kael turn if ever there was one.
Bloomberg is "boring" ("competent", "reliable", "sensible", "good") to people who are still utterly perplexed about what got the deplorables so all fired het up that they done went out and elected Trump.
AA: I don't want your ugliness and hysteria. I don't want to see my fellow citizens cranked up into a frenzy.
If your fellow citizens can be cranked up into a frenzy, it's because of stuff that's been building up for a long time, not the behavior of some bad actors in a stable system. Those conditions don't go away just by getting the propagandists to stop inflaming the more irrational and excitable among our fellow citizens. Or voting in "boring".
I think Ann is a typical women voter - all style and no policy . Amazing since you would think that a smart women would dwell would be concerned with what counts.
Is she that shallow or is it all a put-on?
AA: I don't want your ugliness and hysteria. I don't want to see my fellow citizens cranked up into a frenzy.
I don’t think the NYT, WaPo, and The New Yorker covered much of the dissatisfaction with Obama by the Deplorables so it never existed in the official record.
The ironic thing about wanting boring is that none of the leading Democratic candidates are selling that in this primary, they all seem to want to launch grand transformative government plans.
Bloomberg may make a showing in the Democratic primary, but I don't think he really gets anywhere unless Biden either fades or withdraws. Much as Democrats may relish a candidate who can spend a few billion on an election without blinking, spending it on gun control advocacy is likely to be a net loser in the swing states Democrats need to win back.
Trump is actually the most boring candidate running in 2020 when you look past the Twitter circus he uses to distract the media and his opponents from what he's actually doing.
Mike Bloomberg is a malignant, fascist dwarf,and Trump will chew him up and spit him out.
Ann, here's a National Review article detailing a reason you may not want (& ultimately not vote for) Bloomberg.
‘Moderate’ Michael Bloomberg Is an Authoritarian Nightmare
The sub-head provides the teaser: "Throughout his career, he has repeatedly shown blatant disrespect for individual rights and civil liberties."
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