February 18, 2020

In the new NPR/Marist poll, Bernie is at 31% and second-place goes to Bloomberg, who gets 19%, enough to put him in tomorrow's debate.

Bloomberg needed a 4th poll giving him at least 10% nationally, and now he has it.

3rd and 4th places go to Biden (15%) and Warren (12%), and both of them are moving downward — Biden down 9 points and Warren down 5. Buttigieg and Klobuchar are both below 10% — the cut-off point for qualifying for the debate if you're qualifying on national polls.

(You can also qualify for this debate by hitting 12% in 2 polls from SC or Nevada or by having already won a delegate. Buttigieg, Sanders, Warren, Klobuchar, and Biden have all won delegates — 23, 21, 8, 7, and 6, respectively.)

High stakes for tomorrow's debate! This is where people will decide if Bloomberg deserves to become the focus of all the stop-Bernie action. If he doesn't, that action will continue to be diffused over 5 candidates, unless one of the other 4 — Buttigieg, Warren, Klobuchar, or Biden — suddenly emerges as the one to back. It's hard to see how anyone other than Bloomberg has a shot at becoming The One, so the anti-Bernie anti-Trumpsters have got to be looking at Bloomberg with an absurd amount of expectation.

It's hard to see how he can do well enough in the debate for that to happen. I think the 5 — that is, all the Democratic non-Bernies — will simply try to keep a majority away from Bernie and position themselves to win at the convention. That's 5 months away. And then there are only 3 1/2 months before the election. Democrats need a way to get through the next 5 months without devolving into brand-destroying chaos. Unless Buttigieg, Warren, Klobuchar, and Biden get together and pick one of them to go forward, the answer is going to be Bloomberg.

Unless he's awful at that debate.

And won't Buttigieg, Sanders, Warren, Klobuchar, and Biden all try to make him look awful?

I would advise Buttigieg, Warren, Klobuchar, and Biden to get together and pick one. But they need to do it soon. If I picture those 4 huddling and really trying to decide which of the 4 of them should take up the banner of moderate anti-Trumpism, I see the choice as Amy Klobuchar. She's the best age (59), she's female, and she's got a long record in the Senate. But that's too sensible, isn't it? The Democrats are so keyed up to fight that they're not going to accept mere sensibleness.

And yet mere sensibleness is also all Bloomberg purports to be. But he's spending billions to make that feel good, good enough to let go of the crazy excitement that is Bernie Sanders.

And Donald Trump.

Here's an article at Politico about Bloomberg's debate prep:
[H]is team is working to get him to project comfort and composure in the line of fire, while portraying him as the toughest Democrat to take on Donald Trump. Howard Wolfson, the veteran Democratic strategist who joined Bloomberg’s orbit in 2009 after working on Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential race, is playing the role of Sanders... Wolfson joked that his inspiration for Sanders came from watching “Statler and Waldorf,” the cantankerous elderly Muppets who lob critiques from their balcony seats...
How much did Bloomie pay him for that?
Bloomberg is trying to hone a crisp and energetic appeal to voters that will contrast with Biden— another white, male septuagenarian on stage, according to advisers. Other potential pitfalls for Bloomberg are his tendency to use dated language — words like “bawdy,” for instance — to dismiss concerns about his financial news service’s work culture for female employees....
So.... understanding the sexual harassment problem as a problem of using "dated language" and understanding one's opponents in terms of really old TV puppet shows. You can have billions of dollars to spend but you can only buy what's out there for sale. And Bloomberg — who, if elected, will make a lot of hiring decisions — found Wolfson, the man who helped Hillary lose.

213 comments:

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Achilles said...

Freder Frederson said...

Trump is seen as a man of the common people because he is very good at fooling the common people. Trump, as a born grifter, sees the common people as marks. That is why he doesn't care when he screws them over.

You guys are just really stupid. This is really dumb and easy to see through/

We aren't going to listen to you.

Trump is following through and doing exactly what we wanted him to. The economy is much better particularly for the working class.

You all are the rubes.

Greg the class traitor said...

Blogger Howard said...
That just shows the depth you have descended to within the Trump Con, Jersey fled. Bloomberg employs tens of thousands of common people while Trump only employees a handful of people who are mostly family and unindicted co-conspirators.

1: Trump built actual things. Bloomberg built a "news business" that was by and for the monied classes and the "urban professionals"

2: Who cares?

In case your TDS caused you to fail to learn anything from the last 4 years, Trump's been President. And voters aren't going to score him on what he did before he became President, they're going to score him on what he's done as President.

And what he's done as President is clear away the socialist crap that Obama and other previous Presidents piled on the productive people of America, slow down the invasion of low skilled foreigners that drove down wages for the working class, and stop giving China a free ride as they try to screw over America's workers.

The result has been the best US Economy since President Eisenhower, for working class Americans.

Not just "white working class", all "working class." Including Hispanic and black.

To the point that 70% of Americans think of themselves as" better off".

All Bloomberg offers is a return to the crap Obama economy. With even more contempt for the working class than before.

He can buy all the campaign staff he wants. He can throw rallies that will be well attended, because they're catered.

But he's not going to be able to buy the electorate, get them to vote against their own best interests

AllenS said...

Greg the class traitor, please use quote marks so we can see what you are quoting. When you don't use quote marks, nobody can tell when the quote ends, and your comment begins. Thanks.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

OK, Bloomer

"When Bloomberg News’s Reporting on China Was Challenged, Bloomberg Tried to Ruin Me for Speaking Out"

lawyers threatened to devastate my family financially if I didn’t sign an NDA silencing me about how Bloomberg News killed a story critical of Chinese Communist Party leaders.

https://t.co/X6pAOcI1oh?amp=1

Howard said...

Isn't that precious Achilles the strawman Slayer thinks we believe everything we post here and that were actually trying to convince you people to change you people's minds.

Hey Allen, who's Greg?

Automatic_Wing said...

Ray Nitschke was an Ubermensch, at least in some respects.

FullMoon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Darrell Harris said...

I've said this for a long time: Polls do not sample public opinion, they shape public opinion. For me, the most important part of the Professor's post is that when he needed another poll above 10% to get him onto the stage, Marist/NPR gave it to him.

I wonder how much that stunt cost Bloomy.

elkh1 said...

Democrats love the money Bloomberg dishes out to buy their votes.

Will Bernie Bro's vote for Nanny Bloom in Nov.?

Will blacks vote for proven-racist Nanny Bloom against alleged-racist Trump?

Will women who wanted people to value their brains vote for Nanny Bloom who told them to go to the library instead of go shopping vote for Nanny against Trump who promoted the first woman manager in NY Construction?

One thing that locks up liberal women votes is Nanny told a pregnant woman to "get rid of it".

FIDO said...

Nonsense. Hillary lost all by herself by being one of the most offensive and least charismatic people on the planet. Have you heard her laugh? It makes the skin crawl unless you are a devotee.

Very likely, this man helped her, despite her miserable personality, timing, and manner, to get within a whisker of the presidency.

That he could do so much is amazing. Now he needs to learn to make Mike seem Major and not Mini.

Not a lot of material to work with. Bloomie always looks constipated.

Greg the class traitor said...

FIDO said...
Nonsense. Hillary lost all by herself by being one of the most offensive and least charismatic people on the planet. Have you heard her laugh? It makes the skin crawl unless you are a devotee.

Very likely, this man helped her, despite her miserable personality, timing, and manner, to get within a whisker of the presidency.


Hi Fido, did you actually bother to read what I wrote? Or are you just arguing with the voices in your head?

Fact: Hillary and Obama tied in the "popular vote" in the 2008 Democrat Primary
Fact: Outside of the small State caucuses immediately after "Super Tuesday", Hillary and Obama tied in delegates to the Democrat National Convention
Fact: Hillary's team assumed that the race would be over after Super Tuesday, and so did not prepare for those caucuses
Fact: Obama's team assumed that the race would NOT be over after Super Tuesday, and so DID prepare for those caucuses

Fact: The reason why Obama went into the 2008 DNC with enough of a delegate lead that Hillary's "superdelegates" weren't will / able to give her the nomination was because Hillary's team screwed up those small State caucuses

Now, if you'd like to go back and try to dig up some actual data to counter these facts, and share that data with us, I'd be happy to listen.
If you like to apologize for shooting your mouth off when you had no idea what you're talking about, I'd be happy to listen

Otherwise, i'll be happy to ignore you, because in that case you're clearly a worthless idiot

Jack Klompus said...

"... were actually trying to convince you people to change you people's minds."

Howard the Nitschke scholar comes through with another monument to the English language. For his next trick he will refer to another accomplished public figure as a "retard."

Nichevo said...


Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...
Sorry, disregard comment. Thought it was "NPR/Marxist Poll.


Isn't it?


Howard said...
It is true, however blow-me gets a huge pass on his peccadilloes because Democrat. Is it just me or does anyone else think that a peccadillo is a very small steely Dan design for use on a very petite woman?

In my experience, the small ones enjoy the big meat as much as the [] you married, Howard. Either you don't know from the petites, and/or the big meat.

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