Michael Bloomberg 2020 campaign megathread

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I guess he figured that with Trumps' move to Florida, there was an opening in the "despicable New York billionaire" lane.

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Yeah this guy falls under "Under no circumstances" too

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Best case scenario:

Bloomberg splits the "centrist" primary voters evenly with Biden, leaving room for Warren to come out ahead.

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https://twitter.com/GPCRMovies/status/1192585811067392001

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https://twitter.com/thomaswright08/status/1192917774491955202

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Would be better if Bloomberg, Steyrer and Biden all drop out, let other more competent people do the job and donate 100 Mio. $ to the DNC for a 50-state GE campaign ...

Better for defeating Donald Trump, for the Democratic party, and for the United States? Absolutely.

Better for their egos, and the hyper-wealthy 0.0001% of the human race? Not at all.

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Strong endorsements of Bloomberg from Rahm Emanuel at Politico, and Bret Stephens at the NYT.

Both make me feel like they're pitching the same arguments Republicans used (and still use) to justify their support for Donald Trump, only with the Republican scratched out and "Democrat" scribbled in in its place. I think Stephens sums it up best, when he says,

The Democratic base will not sit out the election and squander its chances to oust Trump just because Bloomberg’s wealth offends them or because they won’t vote for a candidate who doesn’t embrace the Green New Deal.

I will be proud to reject both old white Republican New York billionaires on any ballot.

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https://twitter.com/Eugene_Scott/status/1197268668939472896

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https://twitter.com/TheRickWilson/status/1203043976116416517

Michael Bloomberg seems like he's determined to test whether or not it's possible to just buy a nomination, if not the Presidency.

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According to the betting markets, as of this morning, Bloomberg's chances of the presidency stands at 13.8% , exactly the same as Bernie's.

Bernie is still a favorite to win the nomination. But the markets say he will fare poorly against Trump. While Bloomberg will be less favored to win the nomination, he will do much better against Trump.

Do you believe the collective wisdom of the betting markets?

https://electionbettingodds.com/

I think calling Bloomberg's chances equal to Bernie's is overestimation, based on what we've seen so far. We have no idea how he'll actually go over with voters, while Bernie has a very solid shot at the nomination. I won't be surprised if it does come down to Bernie vs. Bloomberg, but I don't think their chances are equal.

As for their chances against Trump, should they become the nominee... I think those are probably are about equal. The main obstacle to defeating Trump is going to be the Republican (and proxy Russian) propaganda, disinformation, and election fraud machine. While I can't know for certain how the two men and their staffs and supporters would respond, I think both of them have everything needed to push back hard against Republican lies and crime, although in different ways.

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https://twitter.com/LEBassett/status/1228071578472263680

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Bloomberg is increasingly looking like a Ronald Hump candidate:

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https://twitter.com/CANCEL_SAM/status/1229127380402393088

NOTE: the "transcript" above the clip is selectively edited to remove that Bloomberg specifically mentions prostate cancer.

From Wikipedia:

The first decision to be made in managing prostate cancer is whether treatment is needed. Prostate cancer, especially low-grade forms found in elderly men, often grows so slowly that no treatment is required. Treatment may also be inappropriate if a person has other serious health problems or is not expected to live long enough for symptoms to appear.

The a campaign to cast Bloomberg in the worst possible light is starting to make me angry. We should argue about which candidate is better. I think Sanders would be a better nominee and President. But inventing a circular firing squad from nothing is not going to help, and I see a lot of "Bernie Bros" doing it. (Disclaimer: I'm personally convinced that most vocal and critical Bernie Bros (who are not the actual majority of Sanders supporters) would not vote for any Democratic nominee, even Senator Bernie Sanders.)

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This guy will destroy the Democratic Party. If your vision for the majority party of America is a coalition of rich people and low-information voters who'll stand by the brand no matter what, then love on this pathetic, unvetted oligarch. Love on the party that'll get 45% of the vote for a generation. 'Cause that's all you're getting, and that's all you deserve.

The Republican utter lack of self-awareness remains breathtaking.

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Cor, imagine if the US presidential election is two billionaires running against each other. That's the kind of thing you expect from post-Soviet banana republics and West African kleptocracies; not a wealthy country that claims to be an advanced democracy

Back in 2015, my anti-establishment self was smugly looking forward to pointing at Hillary Clinton vs. Jeb Bush as the ultimate self-condemnation of America's fake democracy. Now, looking back at myself, reminds me of an old quote by SF author Neal Stephenson,

For a Westerner to trash Western culture is like criticizing our nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere on the grounds that it sometimes gets windy, and besides, Jupiter's is much prettier. You may not realize its advantages until you're trying to breathe liquid methane.

(Not to say there wasn't room for improvement - there was and always will be room for improvement. But if my only choice is between the Republicans of Gilead's toxic miasma and President Bloomberg, the choice is pretty clear.)

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https://twitter.com/nadabakos/status/1229231095704539137

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Do others agree Bloomberg is crazy unelectable?

He's everything Republicans love running against, media, coastal, liberal, "gun-grabbing", elitist (aka Jewish :/ )

They'll have a field day. If anyone thinks Bloomberg is taking back MI/PA/WI. Nope.

<Looks at the 2016 election.>

Bloomberg is electable. He may or may not prove to be a strong candidate, but anyone is electable these days.

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Please, stop feeding the troll before the mods have to come and cleanse the thread with fire.

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https://twitter.com/Daniel_IV_/status/1230259200963551232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7C...

So glad this guy was squashed like a bug tonight.

I'm not fond of billionaires running for office, but does this "communications director" have a name? Because my google-fu is turning up less confirmation than for the average Donald Trump word vomit.

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https://twitter.com/Daniel_IV_/status/1230259200963551232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7C...
So glad this guy was squashed like a bug tonight.

I'm not fond of billionaires running for office, but does this "communications director" have a name? Because my google-fu is turning up less confirmation than for the average Donald Trump word vomit.

Arick Wierson.

Thank you. His Wikipedia bio confirms his assistance to Bolsonaro. But it also states he stopped working for Bloomberg in 2009. Which makes the original tweet rather misleading. "Bloomberg's former communications director advised Jair Bolsonaro’s election campaign" just doesn't quite have the same punch.

Here's the relevant story, Bloomberg surrogate was PR guru for Brazil’s extreme-right leader Bolsonaro  He is promoting Bloomberg and trashing Sanders in public, but doesn't seem to have an official affiliation to the campaign.


The one thing reading the above article makes clear to me is just how damaged our democracy is. That CNN allows a known propagandist who works for fascists to appear on on national news to share his opinions on politics is like having a known poisoner and assassin adding ingredients to your dinner.

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Pete is already running negative ads so I don't think it will matter. Bloomberg will run negative ads against Sanders but only after moderates drop out. Right now 2 of Klobuchar, Pete & Biden have to drop out. I think Klobuchar drops out after SC or after ST. Biden if he loses SC, he has to drop out. Pete has to drop out after ST, if Bernie/Biden/Bloomberg are Top 3 & if Biden wins SC.

Let the field clear itself. Warren will also drop out after ST. You will then see Bloomberg running 100s of Millions of $ of Negative ads against Bernie & Pete/Biden/Whoever is left.

I'm repeating myself here, but "after Super Tuesday" is too late. If Amy, Joe, Pete & Mike are so worried about Bernie, then they need to get together and agree who is going to carry their standard. (What exactly are they rallying behind again? "Less inequality, but not too much less?" "Aim low, so success is easy and even failure looks good?" "Republicans are bad, but we agree with them that socialism is worse?" "Hyper-capitalism is so great for America that we should ignore the downside?" "Trump is awful, so just forget about anything else?") The absolutely latest they should be doing this is a conference call after the final SC results are in, but I'm pretty confident they'll wait until after Super Tuesday, if they do it at all, when it will be too late.

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https://twitter.com/MykeCole/status/1232030395870466048