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.
Gallup’s 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 Warren’s 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).
Here’s where Mike comes in.
It makes sense that many political analysts think Bloomberg’s 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 he’s not even campaigning in the early states. So what’s his play?
As an imperfect Biden emerges as the last hope for electability and the field shrinks down to just three or four others, Bloomberg’s 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 mayor’s “entire campaign depends upon a pandemic onset of buyer’s remorse. What Super Tuesday…will show us is whether he correctly anticipated the electorate’s 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 buyer’s remorse over Biden or gets run over, Bloomberg’s 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 Bloomberg’s 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. They’ll 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 Trump’s impeachment.
The Washington Post’s Ashley Parker writes, “It is impeachment, and it is for life. It’s historical and it’s constitutional. It’s 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 nation’s constitutional order,” adding that Trump’s “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 they’ll need such a distraction if they are to survive the aftermath of their coming civil war.
Not anymore. The word has been cheapened to the point of being meaningless. In fact, considering the tawdry way in which it was ginned up, it's basically a Badge of Honor for President Trump.
He should market t-shirts. NANCY IMPEACHED ME AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS T_SHIRT
No, Politico is saying that lying to a federal court is equivalent to speculation about rumors of speculation about Russians
Politico: Nuff said
To a Bolshie, a rich person is someone with a job, a poor person is someone getting government assistance. The solution is simple take from the rich and give to the poor.
If the House has Articles of Impeachment it is “holding” when eventually a Rat wins the presidency a GOP House should send those Articles that have been pending to a GOP Senate to have the Rat removed. Why not?
If Bloomberg takes down Biden and flattens the pack, that will open the door for Skunk Cabbage, at the DNC Convention.
...and that is what I believe the plan to be.
Trump’s “presidency will be forever blemished by an impeachment.”
So Politico is saying that Bill Clinton’s presidency is tarnished forever by his impeachment?
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There is a HUGE but of course unacknowledged difference between the two.
Clinton’s Impeachment took place after YEARS of investigation resulting in bi partisan supported charges of being found in contempt of court for lying to a Federal Judge (perjury)as well as obstruction of justice. The vote in the House to pass Articles of Impeachment was likewise bi partisan.
In the case of President Trump this process was entirely partisan as far as the run up to the vote to pass the articles of impeachment. This was the ONLY bi partisan part of the process in the House since multiple Democrats as well as all Republicans voted against the articles. Since only a majority was needed the Democrats prevailed in the effort.
Ashley wishes it so.
Bloomberg’s lying BS TV ads sell him as a successful moderate. If he doesn’t get the nomination but is able to buy a sizable chunk of primary votes, I think he will see an opportunity as a third party candidate. To win the nomination and satisfy the rabid Gang of Four socialist wing of the party the nominee will be self defined as a strutting socialist/communist. This is even before Trump begins to target the nominee. Bloomberg’s ego and bankroll will keep him in the mix until Election Day. Even if Bloomberg realizes he can’t win this year, he knows the dem nominee hasn’t a prayer against Trump. $500 million blown on an unsuccessful campaign won’t affect his way of life, so why not step up give it a big wang?
Politico can prewrite history all they want, but the only entity this shampachment has blemished are the Democrats.
This fake impeachment has cost several lives. It is time to pull the fake impeachment plug before it starts WW III.
I have been posting this meme since the terrorist, the Salami, aka Qassem Soleimani was killed as an enemy combatant while ordering more attacks in Iraq against Americans. He thought that President Trump was impeached and therefore impotent to stop the attack on our Embassy.
After my second cup of coffee that first morning, I had just about come to what was posted below:
:^) The reason our enemies and trade rivals are emboldened IS the impeachment. All Demagogic Party trash belongs at the end of a rope.
These terrorist Iranian top dogs figured, wrongly, that they could attack our embassy and worse without any reaction from an impeached president.
They planned to put impeached President Trump into a Jimmy Carter mode after they seized our embassy in Iraq.
Trump's response, panicked them and they descended into Iraq to plan more problems for our president and Iraq. That killed their #1 and #2 terrorist planners as enemy combatants not in their country.
Which top Irani dog is up next, to become sliced/diced and cooked dog food in Iraq?
It is past time to end these fake impeachment hearings.
Like they have done to the words Nazi, Racist Bigot, homophobe and sexist the Democrats have rendered the word impeachment meaningless with a single farcical attack they admit is purely political. This author is a fool.
“It makes sense that many political analysts think Bloomberg’s 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.”
Apples to artichokes...
:
Billionaires get intel just like the govt does. Maybe Bloomberg has a good handle on Biden’s “problems” and is willing to exploit them as things heat up.
Nobody cares about all that. America lives in two worlds now, the world of liberal truth and the world of other truth.
The two don’t intersect anymore.
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