Posted on 02/21/2020 5:13:02 AM PST by Kaslin
Wednesday night in Las Vegas, Mayor Mike Bloomberg learned what it is like to be thrown up against a wall and frisked.
At the opening of the Democratic debate, his first, Mayor Mike was greeted by his nearest neighbor on stage, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, with this warm welcome:
"We're running against ... a billionaire who calls women 'fat broads' and 'horse-faced lesbians.' And, no, I'm not talking about Donald Trump. I'm talking about Mayor Bloomberg."
Bloomberg was not only charged with misogyny and sexism but racism for his stop-and-frisk policy, which the NYPD pursued during his three terms as mayor. By Bloomberg's own admission, stop and frisk singled out black men between 16 and 25.
Undiscussed were the positive results of the policy.
Gun homicides in New York fell to levels below those attained by his predecessor, Rudy Giuliani. And if those most often frisked were black and Hispanic men, the lives saved and the woundings prevented were also mostly those of people of color.
Yet, a question that remains after this debate was one that was puzzling even before the debate.
Why did he do it? Why did Bloomberg, who is not on the Nevada or South Carolina ballot, decide to join the debates before these contests?
Today, the mayor's campaign is probably buying tens of millions of dollars in ads to undo the damage done to him under the remorseless fire on his character, campaign and record from his rivals Wednesday night.
These attacks were predictable and predicted. Why did he submit to this? Who counseled Bloomberg to climb into the ring?
By investing $350 million in ads in primary states since November and crafting scheduled appearances while avoiding adversarial talk shows and candidate debates, Bloomberg had propelled himself from nowhere into the top tier of candidates in every state on Super Tuesday.
Why did he abandon a winning strategy to walk out, unprepared, onto a stage full of enraged and exasperated rivals who think he is buying and stealing a nomination for which they have fought for a year?
Why did he volunteer to enter a forum where he had to know his rivals would become a flash mob before he answered his first question? This was campaign malpractice of historic dimensions.
It is going to take hundreds of millions of dollars in new ads to undo the damage done to Bloomberg's reputation among the millions of voters who got their first impression of the mayor from the debate.
Where does the race stand before Saturday's caucuses in Nevada?
Sen. Bernie Sanders, his energy restored after his heart attack a few months back, his lines honed by a year's repetition, was at the top of his game Wednesday night, fending off attacks and fighting back with a passion and ferocity that Bloomberg never exhibited.
With his popular vote victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, five national polls showing him taking the lead from Joe Biden, and contributions pouring in from his huge army of small donors, Sanders is the favorite to win in Nevada and man to stop.
But after Super Tuesday, March 3, he may be unstoppable.
A new Washington Post poll Wednesday shows Sanders with a huge lead among young voters and in a statistical tie with Joe Biden among African Americans. And he is flush with cash.
March 4 could see Sanders with an almost insurmountable lead that could have him enter the Milwaukee convention with a majority of delegates or a plurality so huge as to make it politically impossible for his adversaries to gang up on him and take the nomination away.
For who would be the beneficiary of such a robbery on the convention floor? The same Bloomberg his rivals described Wednesday night as a misogynist, sexist and racist.
Bloomberg's campaign is sounding the alarm that Sanders could soon amass an insurmountable delegate lead if the Democratic field stays split, and is urging the other candidates to drop out.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Vice President Biden are being told that if they do not get out of the race and clear the lane for the mayor, they will get a socialist as their nominee, and the party will deserve the fate November will bring -- a second term for Trump.
Bloomberg's strategist Kevin Sheekey was pointedly warned by staffers on Thursday:
"If Biden, Buttigieg, and Klobuchar remain in the race despite having no path to appreciably collecting delegates on Super Tuesday (and beyond), they will propel Sanders to a seemingly insurmountable delegate lead by siphoning votes away from (Bloomberg)."
As the other candidates cannot beat Sanders, Bloomberg's campaign is saying, they should step aside and clear the field for Mayor Mike. This would call for a spirit of self-sacrifice and measure of esteem for the mayor not evident on that stage Wednesday night.
He knows the fix is in. The convention will be glorious.
To be fair, he looked like he was thinking, who are all these effing moonbat idiots up here on stage?
I’m already hearing people say they are sick of his ads. They were smart enough to make sure they aren’t the same ads over and over. There’s a point of diminishing returns. The constant ads just remind people this is insanely rich guy trying to buy an election
The NDAs will finish Bloomberg.
Tick...tick....tick....
Me too!
Me three!
Me four!....
tick...tick...tick....
What the Trump folks need to do is their homework.
They need to have a couple of the NDA ladies in reserve ready to tell their story if Bloomberg gets the nomination.
(Of course if they wanted to have some real fun they could have the National Enquirer publish one story just before the convention—a shot across the bow.... ;-) )
Politics is a full contact sport!
It’s the first time I was actually cheering for Bloomberg, even though I despise the guy. He exposed communism for what it is-—a dismal failure. Showed that Bernie and Warren would defend Communism and they did. But best of all, they exposed him for his racist, sexist, stupid nanny state policies. This was not only a win for Trump but for conservatism....
You're probably right, but as of today (snapshot in time, subject to change) I'm seeing a Sanders/Warren ticket and when his ticker conks out in October, she becomes the nominee by acclamation...Bernie gets a swell funeral and Evita Warren faces Trump on November 3. Her new running mate, Peter Pan, the new manchurian. They lose.
If Bloomberg can stop Sanders now, he will lose in November, due to having the personality of a 19th c. undertaker.
I can also imagine (while I'm at it) Bloom luring Bernie into accepting the #2 spot on the ticket, obliging Bernie to explain it to the Bros, and after Bernie has demonstrated what a total sellout he is, Bloom drops him from the ticket.
Or it could all get even more interesting... :)
Here’s what I don’t understand about Bloomberg’s poor performance in the debate: Bloomberg must have run into a lot of situations in his business career where he faced tough negotiations and dealt with people who were hostile towards him. He was elected mayor of New York City 3 times, so he has experience in running political campaigns. As mayor, there must have been times when he had to defend his decisions and respond to tough critics. With that kind of background, you’d think he would have been better prepared going into the debate. How could he have not anticipated the attacks against him, and not have a response prepared for questions that everyone knew would be asked? Maybe he’s just so use to getting his way all of the time, and buying his way out of tough situations, that he took the debate too lightly.
the next debate is next week...be curious to see if mini mike over reacts and goes crazy on the attack...this is so much fun..heh
Bloomie’s is urging the other candidates to drop out......
* * *
....And he has lots of favors and undercover money to buy out some of the other candidates — all on the hush hush, of course.
My guess is that we are definitely headed to a brokered convention for the Dems. Sanders can win no more than 80% of the delegates he needs to win it outright.
Actually I loved the question Bloomberg asked of his competitors on the debate stage: “Am I the only person on the stage who actually started a business? Is that fair?”
And then dead silence. Very effective.
Everyone knew Bloomberg would take a beating. It was a foregone conclusion, so now he’s on the other side of that.
One word: arrogance.
Mini-Mike’s last run for election was sometime ago. I believe he has existed in a “yes” bubble for at least a decade(if not longer). Easy to lose your edge when all you hear is the choir singing your tune.
That’s already baked into President Trump’s support.
One of the problems billionaires have is that their top aides are usually “yes men” who do not bring up uncomfortable topics.
He should have practiced with hostile interrogators (contracted for just that purpose) who were not a part of his regular staff.
His handlers may not have been briefed on the NDAs, even though some of that information was “out there”.
They also may have believed (as some around here do) that he could survive tough personal issues because Donald Trump had done so.
There is only one Donald Trump, who was the right man with the right issues at the right time.
Failure to understand that is why history will call him Doomberg.
The stop and frisk policy SAVED LIVES ... Crime went down...
The real answer is because he is an arrogant little prick, who believes his $#!+ doesn't stink, because everywhere he goes he takes a gaggle of sycophantic yes men, and fires anyone who actually challenges his stupidity.
Rush was talking about this yesterday.
Bloomberg thought he could do what Trump did, because he's a billionaire, too, just like the Donald.
BUT, Mini-Mike has NO personality and is downright stupid.
He's not Trump, and will never be even close.
I just had a flashback to 1984. The renowned debater Ronald Reagan fell flat on his back in the first debate with Walter Mondale, who was suggesting that Reagan was too old at 73.It was so bad that there was a wave of relief among Republicans when, during the second debate, Reagan said,
"I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience,”and Mondale had to laugh. At that instant, I knew that Mondale was done.I cite this incident to make the point that historically, sitting presidents have not done well in debates. You could look it up. Plenty of criticism of Mitt Romney’s failure to go for the kill in the last debate against Obama - but you gotta admit that Obama was on the ropes. And that’s just one example. I don’t think there is an example of a sitting POTUS breezing thru a debate.
OTOH, it’s Donald Trump we’re talking about . . . he just instinctively won’t shy from a fight.
We hope.
I was thinking - hey, I need an attack Cherokee too!
Good analysis of the “look” of Trump versus Bloomie.
To me, Bloomie has the appearance of a bureaucrat, head of the Inter-agency, oligarch, banker, and dispassionate face of a Wall Street kingpin.
But that’s not the face of an American political winner in the age of the Kardashians.
Look at Bernie. His policies would absolutely Make America a Banana Republic, but he’s got energy! He’s passionate and somewhat authentic. That and his outrageous “chicken-in-every-pot” promises have brought him far.
And there’s no way Bloomie can rise to the energy level of a Bernie or Trump.
But Bloomie’s money (and connections to money) CAN strong-arm all sorts of people. Mini-Mike is the tool of the Deep State, Clintons, Uniparty, Globalists, China, and Fake News all wrapped in one.
In all likelihood, those forces will never let Bernie take the nomination.
The irony is that Bernie was instrumental to Trump’s victory in 2016 — and will be again in 2020.
The answer is: women and the gender wars.
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