Posted on 02/21/2020 10:43:10 PM PST by robowombat
The Democratic presidential race is in fresh turmoil after former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg turned in a conspicuously poor performance in his first debate Wednesday evening.
Bloomberg took a hammering in Las Vegas at the hands of his opponents, particularly Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
The negative impact is reverberating among centrists in the Democratic Party.
The party’s moderate vote is splintered among several candidates while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a democratic socialist, advances toward the nomination.
Bloomberg’s misfire means that dynamic won’t change anytime soon.
The centrists contend Sanders is too risky a candidate to run against President Trump in November — an assertion that is, of course, vigorously disputed by his supporters.
In a TV interview earlier this month, James Carville, the former aide to President Clinton, compared Sanders with Jeremy Corbyn, the left-wing British Labour Party leader.
Carville said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”: “The only thing between the United States and the abyss is the Democratic Party. That’s it. If we go the way of the British Labour Party, if we nominate Jeremy Corbyn, it’s going to be the end of days.”
Corbyn’s party suffered a catastrophic defeat at the hands of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party in December.
The problem from the centrists’ point of view is that Sanders is the dominant figure on the left, while Bloomberg, former Vice President Joe Biden, former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) fight over centrist votes.
Warren is something of a wild card, as she is not as far left as Sanders but not as centrist as the other four.
In an ABC News-Washington Post national poll this week, Sanders, with 32 percent support, had exactly twice the backing of his closest challenger, Biden, at 16 percent. Bloomberg had 14 percent, Warren 12 percent, Buttigieg 8 percent and Klobuchar 7 percent.
Bloomberg’s candidacy has been built around vast advertising outlays — he is estimated to have spent around $350 million since beginning his White House bid in late November.
As he rose in the polls, some moderates were persuaded that his resources could make him the dominant standard-bearer for their side against the Sanders faction.
That seems a highly dubious proposition in the wake of his poor debate performance. And some in the Democratic Party, not aligned with any candidate, wonder what happens now.
“There is no question that Bloomberg has done enormous damage to Biden. There has been cannibalization in the non-Bernie lane,” said Simon Rosenberg, president and founder of the New Democrat Network. “Our primary is more complicated than two lanes, but in the non-Bernie lane, there is a pile-up.”
Among the anti-Sanders factions, there is widespread fear that the Vermont Independent could soon jump out to an insurmountable delegate lead.
Sanders finished in a de facto dead-heat with Buttigieg in the chaotic Iowa caucuses and won the second contest, the New Hampshire primary. He is the strong favorite to win Saturday’s Nevada caucuses as well.
Even if Sanders does not win the South Carolina primary on Feb. 29 — and he might — he will still go into Super Tuesday, on Mar. 3, in a preeminent position.
On that day, the liberal bastion of California is by far the biggest prize. The Golden State is fertile ground for Sanders, who held an 11-point lead there in the RealClearPolitics polling average as of Thursday evening.
Of course, that is cause for joy for Sanders supporters, who echo the senator’s own arguments that he can inspire enthusiasm among people who do not normally vote and thus run up big margins of victory against Trump.
In his first sentence at the debate Wednesday night, Sanders asserted, “In order to beat Donald Trump, we're going to need the largest voter turnout in the history of the United States.”
The jury is out on whether Sanders can actually do that. Getting habitual nonvoters to turn out is legendarily difficult and the evidence so far is mixed.
Even Democratic strategists who are unaffiliated with any campaign have some concern about whether Sanders really has the ingredients to make it to the White House.
“Against Trump, he certainly has a chance. But do I think he is the most electable Democrat running? No,” said Democratic strategist Robert Shrum, who has worked on several past presidential campaigns.
“Do I think he is going to bring a lot of new voters out? There is no evidence of that from Iowa and New Hampshire.”
But that doesn’t resolve the key question for Sanders’s skeptics: Who can stop him?
Bloomberg is badly wounded after his debate debacle.
Biden is fading fast in polls after very poor results in Iowa (4th place) and New Hampshire (5th place).
Buttigieg has shown no real capacity to win significant nonwhite support, which is a glaring deficiency in a Democratic primary.
And Klobuchar, who outperformed expectations to finish third in New Hampshire, languishes in fifth place in most national polls.
That leaves Warren, who began her campaign very much as a progressive champion but has more recently sought to present herself as a unifying force.
Warren would need to clear a lot of hurdles to come back into real contention — she was third in Iowa, fourth in New Hampshire and is not expected to win in either Nevada or South Carolina.
The overall picture leaves some Democrats, like Rosenberg, worrying about the wounds inflicted in the primary — and casting around in vain for someone who might be able to bind them up.
“The core of the dilemma that Democrats face right now is that neither Bloomberg nor Sanders will have an easy time uniting the party if they win the nomination,” he said. “They’re not Democrats.”
“It’s going to take someone of enormous dexterity and skill to bring everybody together.”
The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage, primarily focused on Donald Trump’s presidency.
Yes and No.
Hell the Democrats nominated Democratic Socialist McGovern in 1972, got wiped out, and then won the next election with Carter.
This lie being espoused by the media recently is infuriating. There are no "centrists" or "moderates" in the Dem Party. None at all. And that includes about 95% of the media. What is being splintered is the vote between an open "democratic socialist" (really communist), a billionaire opportunist, and the rest of the field who hide who they really are just to try to win votes.
I tend to agree with you, because look at where the Democrats are today politically.
I laugh at the television when I hear these pundits utter the term "Democrat Moderates."
There are no moderates in the Democrat party any longer. No radical ideology, is too far left. No policy is too evil, to include murdering infants while in or out of the womb, the lie that men can become women and vice versa, the horrific child abuse and mutilation of encouraging and allowing emotionally fractured children to become "transgendered", the suppression of free speech in the most fascist ways imaginable, and on and on.
He lies. There are no moderates running.
And if the Dem Party leadership steals the nomination from Bernie, his Stalinist AntiFa goons will riot in Milwaukee and likely elsewhere. Which reminds me, I need to stock up on popcorn.
The media worked with the Dems in moving the goalposts; a “moderate” now supports abortion-on-demand, “gay marriage”, increased taxes, and open borders. A leftist supports racial reparations and forgiving student loans...and those are the only positions I can think of that wouldn’t get lumped with “moderate” today.
Warren is the perfect politician.
You cannot pin her to the wall and if you did she would lie about it.
Yep, perfect
We can laugh at them all we want, but if we don’t show up in November, one of them could end up being our next president.
“Stoddard told the panel that nominating a “Socialist” was going to devastate the Democrats, and that the party would not recover “for decades.”
This infuriated another female panel member, and she “corrected” that Sanders is a “Democrat Socialist”, to which Stoddard replied: “Whatever” and said it made no difference (word games).
This further infuriated the female panel member and other nut jobs on the panel.”
Saw the shorter clip and it was awesome. Can’t wait for the party to start: full out Civil War, Bolsheviks vs. the Mensheviks.
I don’t believe Biden was done in by Bloomberg - he was fading long before Bloomberg started his heavy advertising. What did him in were the gaffes and Pelosi’s stupid plot to get rid of Trump by way of Ukraine. That did nothing to Trump but absolutely destroyed Biden and his son.
If they really want to stop him they’ll have to treat him like a Republican, and paint him as a bigot, racist, homophobe and anti-woman. It shouldn’t be too hard; it’s what they habitually do.
I can’t think of a group of people who deserve to be made to suffer anxiety and more, than the members of the demoncrat party. I can only hope that the media shares all the angst and worry and agita and sleepless nights.
SMALL PRICE TO PAY FOR THE UPHEAVAL OF CIVIL BEHAVIOR AND DOWNRIGHT MANIACAL EVIL AGAINST OUR PRESIDENT AND, INDEED, ALL...ALL OF US FOR MORE THAN THREE YEARS.
As a Leftie Sage once said: “ The chickens have come hope to roost!!” BIG TIME.
By the way, I called our local sheriff's office and asked how long would I expect to have to wait before they showed up if I had to call them in an emergency, say a home invasion. He said, that UNLESS a car was actually out in our area, IF they had to dispatch one from the home office, I could expect to wait at least 30 minutes!!! before they arrived. So, I said: "So, I am okay to blast away to protect myself and my wife, right??" He said: "Yes sir, do what you have to do to protect yourself. IF, IF, you believe you are in danger to severe injury or loss of life, you defend yourself." I said: "Thanks, I will do just that." So, we are armed, locked and loaded. We both know how to shoot. I ran weapons qualifications ranges in the service and have taught my wife how to blast away also. The girl was a natural. She aims for center mass and blasts away. She shoots/blasts the naval out of the targets!!! When I leave the house, going somewhere, she has her pistol right with her in the event of a break-in. We have had several in our area in the past few months and last year. So, everyone is prepared to protect their-selves.
Sadly, our local sheriff's deputies are understaffed, and probably overworked as they are rarely out patrolling. You see them at all the schools, guarding the kids all day. I cannot remember the last time I saw a deputy pull some driver over for traffic stops. Even the local cops are not out doing traffic control. Don't know where the city cops are, donut shops I guess, but not out patrolling, that is for sure. SO - BE PREPARED, BE AWARE OF YOUR SUITUATION, PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY!! Be ARMED FOLKS!! LOCK AND LOADED!!!
Chaos... panic...
Gee; that’s a shame. Maybe we should help them, you know, “reach across the aisle”...
Nah. On second thought, Let’em choke.
Yea, getting shalacked in his first national appearance was a part of the plan...He can recover from it sure, because he can spend without care but that doesn’t mean he’s a political mastermind. Every media outlet was ready to declare him the only one who can beat Trump if he only did a decent job. So his plan, under that scenario, was to have a sub par performance? It’s not that he answered incorrectly or looked mean. From what I saw he just accepted all the criticism as valid and that’s just weak.
She’s very much a Liberal hack
Apparently the queer supports reparations, not to mention packing the supreme Court and abolishing the electoral college and he is considered moderate. Sheesh
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