Posted on 01/11/2020 5:49:08 AM PST by Kaslin
Editor's Note: This column was authored by Brian Ericson.
Despite building pressure this week, Nancy Pelosi has maintained she will withhold the articles of impeachment from the Senate until the upper body decides how it will conduct its trial strategically drawing out the political fallout for Trump as Democrats face the likely scenario of a divisive primary season. Indeed, with an inevitably ugly nominating contest on the horizon, Democrats can only hope that the stain of impeachment will be able to knock Trump down enough notches for their battered nominee to stand a decent chance. And much of the trouble brewing for them is the looming threat of Mike Bloomberg.
Gallups recent surveys indicate a majority of Democratic voters would rather nominate the most electable candidate than the candidate who most aligns with their values. A strong majority of even liberal voters would prefer a candidate who could beat Trump over a progressive candidate and the Gallup poll shows that number is only growing as time goes on.
As it stands, roughly half of Democratic voters find Joe Biden the most electable candidate, followed distantly by Bernie Sanders at 16% and Elizabeth Warren at 15%. Even if those latter two numbers were to grow in the coming months, Sanders and Warrens dual presence in the race will split the progressive vote so as to make it negligible. So despite the age-driven gaffes, the historic track record against his campaign and a vote of no confidence from his former boss, for now, Biden remains the uneasy vanguard of the electability coalition (especially after the increased scrutiny of a winnowed post-Iowa field exposes fellow centrist Pete Buttigieg as a fake moderate).
Heres where Mike comes in.
It makes sense that many political analysts think Bloombergs candidacy is a long shot. Then again, they thought that about his New York mayoral bid and his campaign strategy paid off under almost prophetically similar circumstances. Now, his persistent, well-resourced campaign is poised to make a significant impact late in the game. His refusal to accept donations automatically disqualifies him from any future primary debates, and hes not even campaigning in the early states. So whats his play?
As an imperfect Biden emerges as the last hope for electability and the field shrinks down to just three or four others, Bloombergs relentless, calculated advertising in these intervening months will ensure he remains in the back of voters minds as a late-stage Biden alternative and his rising poll numbers are evidence his ads are working. Former Boston Globe columnist John Ellis writes for CNBC that the mayors entire campaign depends upon a pandemic onset of buyers remorse. What Super Tuesday will show us is whether he correctly anticipated the electorates disposition or got run over by its predispositions.
Ultimately, it will be up to Democratic voters to decide whether Biden or Bloomberg is more palatable. But whether he successfully taps into buyers remorse over Biden or gets run over, Bloombergs vast resources and network will ensure he stays in the fight at least long enough to bring both their faults into focus, accomplishing much of the mud-slinging before Republicans ever have to. The eventual nominee be it Biden, Bloomberg or even a stubborn parvenu like Buttigieg will have to preside as an embattled and crippled symbol over a Democratic Party with a fractured image.
Once the smoke clears from the disruption of Bloombergs eleventh-hour impact, Democrats will face the rest of the nation weakened by their own infighting, juxtaposed against a GOP remarkably unified and galvanized by comparison. Theyll need a weapon to strike Republicans down to a playing field more even with their nominee, and the rhetoric from left-leaning media suggests, unsurprisingly, that weapon will be the historic nature of Trumps impeachment.
The Washington Posts Ashley Parker writes, It is impeachment, and it is for life. Its historical and its constitutional. Its not something Trump can squirm his way out of, or cut a hush-money check to make disappear. Similarly, Politico reported that the impeachment is a historic rebuke in a political era that has threatened to upend the nations constitutional order, adding that Trumps presidency will be forever blemished by an impeachment.
Pelosi tapped into this sentiment of gravitas herself when she declared that Congress was gathered under the dome of this temple of democracy to exercise one of the most solemn powers that this body can take: the impeachment of the president of the United States.
The rhetoric of the left is intent on casting down with grave seriousness the presidency of Donald Trump. Democrats know theyll need such a distraction if they are to survive the aftermath of their coming civil war.
The Democrats real choice is not between Biden and Bloomberg.
It is between having Bernie run as their nominee or having the socialists running their own ticket in the election, possibly Tulsi or a Bernie/Tulsi ticket which (while it would not unseat Trump) just might get more votes than the Democrats at this point.
Bloomberg is assaying to win the presidency by carpet bombing Trump (and as necessary Biden, Sanders, et. al.) with personally financed "paid media.Altho Trump threatened something similar in 16, he actually was able to get by with earned media. He made the news about him.
Bloombergs wealth is IMHO a serious threat. He can project an image of himself as seemingly so reasonable.
But Bloomberg is known as a micromanager and a gun grabber. IMHO the gun grabber issue should be addressed by asking, Why do people buy guns? As Bloomberg would have it, they buy guns to kill people. The reality is that if so, guns arent very effective - the number of homicides by gun is dwarfed by the number of guns extant. And the number of homicides is dwarfed by the number of traffic fatalities - why the emphasis on the former disproportionately to the latter?Death: Reality vs. Reported
Finally, although most Democrats arent criminals, IMHO the number of Republicans who are criminals is probably not the tenth part of the number of Democrats who are criminals. If the Democrats are so dead set on reducing murder by gun, and Republicans are the only obstacle to achieving that, the answer is simple - outlaw the ownership and possession of guns by Democrats. Problem solved almost completely!
Actual Cause of Death Prevalence Reportage Heart Disease 30.2 % < 3% Cancer 29.5% < 14% Road, Falls, Accidents 7.6% < 3% Lower Respiratory Disease 7.4% < 3.5% Alzheimers Disease 5.6% < 1% Stroke 4.9% 5% Diabetes 3.8% < 2.5% Drug Overdose 2.8% < 1% Kidney Disease 2.7% < 1% Pneumonia & Flu 2.5% < 1% Suicide 1.8% > 10.6% Homicide 0.9% > 22% Terrorism < 0.01% > 33%
Bloomberg cannot fight it out in a two way race with Trump.
Bloomberg does not have any path to gain the Democrat nomination without Bernie’s faction running their own candidate.
You have a point, but does not have any path might prove to be an exaggeration. How exactly he might buy that path isnt obvious, but 10$ billion will buy many things.
Thousands were in the arena.....tens of thousands were outside in the freezing cold viewing it on TV screens.
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45 people went to a Bloomberg rally to hear the popular Judge Judy.
11 people were at a Biden rally to hear John Kerry.
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Trump kicked-off his 2020 campaign with a rip-roaring rally in Toledo, Ohio (reportedly many from nearby Michigan also attended).
The line to get in to see Trump was so long, it was next to impossible to find the end of it.
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Ace number-cruncher Brad Parscale's winning 2020 data from Toledo:
✅ 22,927 Voters Identified
✅ 18,210 Voters From Ohio
✅ 5,216 Registrants Didn't Vote in 2016
✅ 21.9% Democrats
✅ 20.9% Independents
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