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Bloomberg Out; Warren to Follow?
Two weeks after demanding all other “moderate” Democrats drop out of the presidential race and support him, Michael Bloomberg called it quits Wednesday and endorsed Joe Biden.
The former mayor’s strategy was to hurl hundreds of millions of dollars at the electorate in advertising and organization and perform big on Super Tuesday. The first part worked like a charm; the second, not so much.
The only primary Bloomberg won was the territory of American Samoa, while he only reached the 15 percent threshold for delegates in Arkansas, Colorado, Tennessee, and Utah. His paltry performance in the other 10 states made his decision to exit easy.
“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,” he wrote in a press release.
For some inexplicable reason, Elizabeth Warren remains in the race, though several media outlets have reported that she is “reassessing” her candidacy. She came in third in her home state of Massachusetts, fourth in her birth state of Oklahoma, and only met the delegate threshold in five states.
Published in Elections
Hey! Her ancestors didn’t give up when faced with the overwhelming reality of the white man’s belligerence. And she isnt going to either. Your sexist for even just asking if she would drop out. You wouldn’t ask that of Bernie or Biden? Why? Because they are men?
It’s not inexplicable: Warren is staying in to siphon off votes from Sanders until he is put down, and then the DNC and her donors will cut her off and she will fade away.
The low rumble you heard this morning was the collective moaning and complaining from media sales managers across the country.
Good. I assume that this means that every YouTube video that I click won’t now have 10 seconds of Mike Bloomberg preceding it.
This quote highlights a thought that has been stirring relatively quietly in the back of my mind for months – with the exception of Bernie Sanders, every Democratic candidate has focused almost exclusively on “defeat Donald Trump” as the election objective. No vision. No aspirational goals. No striving for something. To the extent the candidates talk about goals other than defeating Donald Trump, it’s generally nothing more than a watered down version of what Bernie Sanders says he wants to do. No wonder Democratic voters are having such a hard time.
Tamara Keel points out a great tweet:
The most important thing didn’t happen last night. It is probably this:
Speaking of billionaire megadonors:
Tam Keel:
Would Mini Mike have done that? Impossible. Though it fits with Steve Bannon’s “Bloomberg is undertaking a leveraged buyout of the Democrat Party,” doesn’t it?
We don’t have to worry about Mini Mike the candidate anymore. We have to worry about Daddy Campaignbucks Bloomberg and Big Data Mike.
One possibility is that Bloomberg wanted to stop Sanders. We don’t get to re-play the past, so we can’t know for sure, but it is quite possible that he contributed significantly to the decline of Sanders.
Warren could continue to play the spoiler. The Dems needed Klobuchar, Buttie and now Bloomie to drop out as they siphon votes from Joe. They also need Bloomie’s help (money) to keep the House and pick off a couple of vulnerable Republican Senate seats. They helped the former NYC mayor stop the unnecessary blodletting so he (they) can put his money to better use. I don’t think anyone really believes in the Biden candidacy, but they do see a way to buy their way to majority control of both seats of Congress. If they can’t beat Trump, they can thwart his agenda.
From the beginning, Warren has moved steadily to the Left, with Bernie, embracing essentially the Bernie program – Medicare for all, wealth taxes, increase taxes on the rich and corporations, the New Green Deal, open borders, etc. In fact, on gun control, Warren is to the left of Bernie (and that is a very tight place to be.) So her candidacy steals Bernie’s support. She could, almost singlehandedly, keep Bernie from achieving a first ballot delegate win, which gives the 2nd ballot win to Biden since he will get the majority of superdelegate votes as well as the combined support of the Klobuchar and Bloomberg electors.
If she is consistent with her platform, she will drop out and endorse Bernie. That might set her up for a VP slot, should Bernie win. But if she sees a better chance for a Party backed Joe and if she seeks power and influence (VP perhaps, or Sec. of State?), she will stay in. If she’s a disingenuous fraud, she will drop out and endorse Biden.
My money is on that last option.
Especially if the observation that voters who get their news from Twitter lean Sanders, voters who get it elsewhere lean Biden. Bloomberg’s money certainly was spent elsewhere.
Between the stuff Robert Epstein is talking about and the intelligence community’s black budget (wanna bet they spent a bit more money influencing the 2016 elections than the Russians did?) there are undoubtedly forces at work in this election that we don’t know about. Maybe it’s a good thing the Chinese are busy at the moment,
Biden just picked “Beto” to handle his gun control schemes. I don’t think there’s much difference between Warren and O’Rourke there. Maneuvering to be the understudies for Biden and Sanders will be interesting.
This goes to my “branding” theory of the election. Say a new cola is released and the advertising constantly screams that their drink is better than Coca-Cola. “Stop drinking Coca-Cola and start drinking Brand X! Coke is terrible, Diet Coke is worse, but our drink is the best! Next time you go to the store, don’t buy Coca-Cola!”
A few people might buy Brand X, but most would think, “Man, a Coke sounds good right now.” Coca-Cola sales would go through the roof.
2016 was all about Trump and he won. If the Dems run the same playbook in 2020, they shouldn’t be surprised at the result.
He won by getting 80,000 vote in three states… very narrow win. While loosing the popular vote substantially. Dems in 2018 beat the Republicans like Redheaded Step Mules by running “moderate” down to earth Democrats in swing districts. Now they seem likely to do that on the Presidential level by putting in the most normal guy they have with solid credentials, that has gaffs roll off of him like water from a ducks back. Instead of sticking to him like Velcro on a sheep.
Go Joe!
That’s the real fight on the Dem side: “Orange Man Bad” vs Communism.
They did the same thing in 2004. Their entire platform was, “Anybody but Bush,” and they were surprised when the American people didn’t prefer Anybody.
Yawn. Actually, he won by getting 60+ million votes across 50 states. This cherry-picking (popular among a subset of delusional Democrats) of a select number of votes in the Midwest is fallacious “reasoning.”
“Substantially” is subjective, but I’m not surprised at this interpretation. Let’s just go with “irrelevant.”
Not atypical for an off-year election against a controversial president. The “type” of Democrat was largely unimportant, and I doubt that your generalized characterization is accurate in any event.
Well, that’s good for a laugh, so you get credit for that. “Normal”? “Solid credentials”? Riiiiight.
Hope this response is representative of the fish that you were trying to catch.
Bloomberg might have gotten more votes if he had kindled his billion dollars in paper money and lit a fire to it. It would have been the same thing and a lot more interesting.
Or she’ll be rewarded and given a post in a Biden administration should he win (not likely) . . .
Losers always point out how “close” the election actually was using this argument (happens every 4 years). It’s one reason the Electoral College was designed to give a decisive victory (in most cases) . . .
Hillary Clinton is the 2020 Persistent Herpes Infection of the Year.
When did she ever leave? The woman’s poltergeist is going to be scheming on running for president 20 years after her body’s pushing up daisies.
Liz should stay in the race. She is the only viable candidate to go against Trump. The DNC can only protect Biden for so long and then they will have to put forth a healthy candidate. Her time has not yet come.
Drat. I guess I’ll have to throw out my lawn signs now…
And I just read from the New York Times that like her Great Great Grandfather Sitting Bull she is surrendering. I guess Stands With a Plan is done for. No word who she will endorse.
That is brilliant.
Every election year, the TV ads that make me want to vote for Republicans are the ones run by Democrats. The Republican ads leave me feeling like I’ve just been offered a piece of unbuttered bread. But then I see a Democrat’s ad where they explain all the evil right-wing positions held by their Republican opponent and I yell, “I can’t wait to vote for that Republican!”
Warren is now out too
I will miss Mini Mike’s humble countenance:
https://twitter.com/dancow/status/1234888313938546688