The Democrat field officially expanded by one today as Bloomberg Says He Will Launch Democratic Presidential Bid.
Billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s late entry into the presidential race Sunday puts pressure on an already crowded Democratic field, with an essentially limitless budget at the former New York City mayor’s disposal that could further prolong the nominating contest.
Mr. Bloomberg, co-founder and the majority owner of financial data and media company Bloomberg LP, faces a tough path to the nomination given his late entry. But he has already invested tens of millions into his campaign, starting with a roughly $30 million ad buy for next week alone to introduce himself to voters. He has said he would self-fund his campaign and not accept any donations.
His advisers have also been building out his campaign staff, intending to focus on the delegate-rich Super Tuesday states, which vote on March 3. Many of the Democratic candidates have invested fewer resources in those states than in the first few nominating contests, in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.
“I’m running for president to defeat Donald Trump and rebuild America,” Mr. Bloomberg said in a statement Sunday. “We cannot afford four more years of President Trump’s reckless and unethical actions. He represents an existential threat to our country and our values. If he wins another term in office, we may never recover from the damage.”
Asked for a reaction to Mr. Bloomberg’s announcement, Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said simply, “Underwhelming.”
Video Campaign Kickoff
Unlimited Funding
It’s nice to not have to raise money. That’s what being worth over $50 billion means.
But please consider Democrat Debate Rules.
Debate Qualifications
- Polling Threshold: To meet the Polling Threshold for the December Debate, candidates must meet either the “Four-Poll Threshold” (at least 4% in four party-approved polls) or the “Early State Polling Threshold” (6% in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, or Nevada).
- Grassroots Fundraising Threshold: To meet the Grassroots Fundraising Threshold, candidates must submit a certification, executed by the candidate’s campaign Treasurer, by 11 A.M. on December 13, 2019, demonstrating that the campaign has received donations from at least (1) 200,00 unique donors; and (2) a minimum of 800 unique donors per state in at least 20 U.S. states, U.S. territories, or the District of Columbia.
If Bloomberg will self-fund his campaign he will not qualify for any debates.
Qualified for the December Debate
I hope Gabbard can stay in until the end. Hillary Clinton trashed Gabard which is reason enough to support Gabbard.
In case you missed the details, please consider Tulsi Gabbard is more well-known after Hillary Clinton took a jab at her, but also less popular.
In an October interview, Clinton described Gabbard as a “favorite of the Russians.” She added: “They have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far.”
Gabbard offered a scathing response to Clinton’s remarks, stating the former secretary of state is “the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long.”
If that’s not enough reason to support Gabbard, what would it take?
Attacks on Gabbard are ridiculous led by Hillary Clinton’s absurd Russia portrayals and also by the New York Times.
Tulsi Gabbard’s White Pantsuit Isn’t Winning
The New York Times commented Tulsi Gabbard’s White Pantsuit Isn’t Winning.
Yes folk, the NY Times devoted an entire article on Tulsi’s white pant suit.
The lead in comment was “It leaves a chill.“
Indeed, it does leave a chill, but on New York Times reporting and how far into the gutter it has sunken.
The DNC does not want Gabbard in the debates, and that is yet another reason to support her.
Warren is Slipping
Meanwhile, support for Elizabeth Warren is falling like a rock.
I suspect voters are looking at her monstrous tax-and spend proposal that are so looney even the Left cannot stand them.
The same thing is happening in the UK with Jeremy Corbyn’s radical left agenda as the Tories Jump to Double Digit Lead in Every Poll.
Back to Bloomberg
It’s unclear how Bloomberg will impact the Democratic race.
He has enough money to drum up support but that will not buy him an entry into the debates.
And if he takes votes from someone, will it be Biden?
We need to see more polls now that he is officially running.
Correction
Forbes has Bloomberg as the 9th wealthiest man in the world, worth over $50 billion. I originally posted a much lower number and left off a zero.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Here is the problem Adam Schiff created:
https://www.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/mrz112319-color-1-2-mb_orig.jpg
Don’t know much about Tulsi, but Biden is the only one that I do know about that isn’t part of the looney left, as opposed to Biden, who is part of the Fascist/Corporate Crony left. At that, Biden wants to spend Trillions more. But, he wants to feed his rich buddies, so is less likely to tear everything to pieces. Warren and the rest are more like Corbyn in the UK. The left seems to believe as the central bankers do. If it hasn’t worked so far, we need more of it. They drive themselves to be more and more radical.
I think Biden’s candidacy is mainly there to thwart investigations into what happened with Ukraine & DNC & other pay-to-play shenanigans which is son (and no doubt Clintons et alia) got sucked into, expecting a Clinton win in 2016. Because, of course, anyone investigating a political opponent is clearly corrupt.
Problem? If it comes to a Senate trial, that premise is going to boomerang big-time given the amount of domestic surveillance and other dirty tricks used to investigate their political opponent, Trump.
When you are a democrat candidate the last thing you should do is a debate. Gavin Newsom refused all debates with the republican for Cal. governor. It made him appear way more moderate than he really is and he won.
If I were the Dem candidate, I would not debate Trump either. Why give him more oxygen? He won’t follow rules, he won’t be civil and he won’t be focused.
Pres. Trump has several faults, one of those being that he goes on the attack quite a bit, perhaps too often. However, when GOP Presidents are civil, they get crucified by the media: remember Pres. George W. Bush & Hurricane Katrina? Any GOP President would do well to note that attacking too much is a better fault to have than attacking too little. At the very least, it keeps the opposition — and, yes, I include the media within that phrase — off-balance.
Bloomberg must really care about the American people as he has given so much of his money to good help ordinary people.
Oh wait.
If only Trump was as generous. But then Trump doesn’t really have much to give as all his assets are borrowed.
I think this is one of the reasons that Trump is holding on to his tax returns so tightly. They will make it clear that he has given comparatively little to charitable causes.
Bloomberg says that Trump is the existential threat, but that’s not what he thinks. Trump is a very vulnerable R candidate for 2020, but the current D field is so weak that the DNC is struggling to put up a winning candidate. Biden will implode over the coming months leaving moderate Ds with limited choices. So maybe Bloomberg can pick up some delegates. There seems to be a good shot of the Ds going to their convention without a first ballot nominee. Maybe Bloomberg could be a compromise choice in a brokered convention? He has a better chance to beat Trump than Warren, Bernie or Pete.
Even after being told outright that the comments section is dominated by DNC paid actors, Mish only bans conservative commenters. He got really mad when Country Bob pointed out the comments were DNC operatives — and he banned Country Bob for daring to speak the truth, but Mish did not ban the left wing paid commenters…. so did Mish already know that his comments section is DNC propaganda? He was just angry that someone dared to point this out? Yeah, yeah, now I will be banned like all the other conservative commenters, but Mish will keep the left wingers. Nothing changes
Which of the comments here do you consider left-wing and why?
Don’t feed the trolls.
Cuntry Boob got banned for being a cunt.
CB got banned because he pointed out the number of commenters that are paid to go on blogs and Facebook and spew propoganda.
Mish doesn’t want to admit that his blog is being used (actually most of the “Top economic blogs” are being used, not just Mish’s).
George Soros funds massive disinformation campaigns in many countries
The trolls (Sechel, JoJo, Realist, Causual Observer, etc) are being fed (paid) by special interest PACs to write comments that would be called propaganda if they happened in some other banana republic
If the DNC does not waive the campaign requirement for Bloomberg, then he could run as an independent and pull votes away from the Democrat’s nomination. And if the campaign requirement is waived; then it must be waived for ALL remaining candidates who meet the polling requirements.
The DNC completely rigged their last nomination, blocking Comrade Bernie. They had the CIA and FBI try to rig the election.
Why wouldn’t they rig the democrat convention a 2nd time? They were never held accountable for their earlier election rigging (either case).
Bloomberg News promising not to write anything bad about any democrat, because that would be unfair use of his media empire. But they will continue to write nasty things about Trump, including repeating the discredited Russia and Ukraine frauds — well not the part about Biden soliciting and accepting bribes.
Bloomberg news claims they haven’t thought about what would happen IF Bloomberg wins the democrat nomination… like they haven’t thought about their own jobs ending in a year? Bloomberg can’t easily sell his media group.
So Bloomberg news is implicitly repeating what they said last summer: Bloomberg News doesn’t think Mike Bloomberg can win
Bloomberg News is already an anti-Trump propaganda machine. They sit around and craft headlines to put Trump in a bad light (e.g., trying to blame negative market moves on Trump statements). No need to make big changes to give D’s a free pass. I have been a terminal user for nearly 30 years. It is sad to see them lose perspective and become MSM sheep. They keep customers because of their tremendous market data franchise, but their news has become a big negative.
It’s easy for intelligent people to be be anti-Trump!
True dat, about Trump! Also quite easy for intelligent people to be anti-MSM. Bloomberg News used to be an apolitical market source. Since 2016, they have changed their stripes.
Intelligent people don’t believe that someone else (either party) is going to fix things for us
Agreed. That has been the genius of our Constitution. We have the right and responsibility to take care of ourselves. I hope our electorate does not allow what rights we have to be infringed upon.
He will take so many votes from the Democrats that Trump will win again. I hope Hillary jumps in to. A bloodbath for the Democrats.
Mish, Tulsi only needs a few thousand new donors and one more qualifying poll to make the December debate. Send her a dollar if you want her on the stage.
Did Bloomberg accept Jesus Christ as his lord and savior? Oh, no? Then there’s no point in discussing this.
Yes, that might actually make America more of a terrorist target.
Another rich old white man – Democratic Party complains but still holding on to status quo.
I’d be really interested to hear why Bloomberg wants to defeat Trump so badly. I hope he pretends we’re all children and explains it to us slowly, because I’m having enormous difficulty understanding what big issues separate these two.
It’s especially difficult to understand what “existential threat” Trump represents. Is Bloomberg saying that rather than the Trump doctrine of fomenting unrest to foster regime change, he would do it the old fashioned way with US troops?
Stuki is right. They’re both shady New York billionaires who want the Fed to ease forever and both of them slobber all over Israel and Saudi Arabia. Where is the difference, and what’s galvanizing Bloomy here? Other than the rhetoric they offer to the great unwashed I’m not seeing it.
“It’s especially difficult to understand what “existential threat” Trump represents”
Seriously? Perhaps this will jog your brain a bit:
NOVEMBER 23, 2019
China attacks U.S. at G20 as the world’s biggest source of instability
BEIJING (Reuters) – The United States is the world’s biggest source of instability and its politicians are going around the world baselessly smearing China, the Chinese government’s top diplomat said on Saturday in a stinging attack at a G20 meeting in Japan.
The point is that we’re going to be hostile to China and most of the world whether we have Trump or Bloomberg. Again, what’s the big difference?
I don’t think that is true and I don’t think that is necessary.
And anyway, China is on a path to supplant the USA as the worlds #1 economic and superpower. Look at all the investments they are making in the middle east, Africa and even parts of Europe. meanwhile, the USA doesn’t have enough money to repair its own infrastructure, let alone do big science, go to the Moon/Mars, etc.
The town I live in is probably 70% Chinese now. 20 years ago that number was probably closer to 20%. China plays the long game and they are slowly moving their nationals into towns and cities all over the world, buying up housing stock and starting/taking over businesses. It’s not Central American immigrants we should be worried about in the USA, it is the Asians!
Rebuild America with trillions borrowed ( freshly printed )with cheap ass crap made in China lol, leave it the way it is ie the nicest bankrupt 3rd world banana republic ever.
Wearing white after labor day violates fashion rules!
Unless you where it well!
Who cares?!
With all that money Bloomberg has, he should have no problem buying all the super-delegates.
Couldn’t make up a more fitting General, in this by now fully financialized dystopia, than one between two self promoting New York Fed Welfare Queens. Both handed billions of dollars worth, by a central bank who stole it all by debasement, from the very Americans they now pretend they are going to “rebuild and make America great again” for.
“Any polling now will be useless. Bloomberg just got in. Bloomberg’s ads haven’t hit. He’s clearly betting it all on Super Tuesday since he’s skipping the early caucus states.”
For sure he preempted the caucus states. But that does not make the polls useless.
Rather, it will take a bit to see the impact.
In general, I side a Sechel here.
And if he starts polling 15%, will they let him in the debates?
Billionaires self-funding their own campaigns will be given an exception from the debate qualification requirements.
That’s what I think JoJo
Then the need to concoct a way to get Tulsi out of there
I think Bloomberg is not running for Pres per se, however he is going to be putting out a huge amount of attack ads against Trump which he can easily do as a candidate whereas campaign finance laws would restrict his contributions to the DNC to a paltry amount. So by running he can put a few hundred million dollars into negative advertising and he doesn’t have to show up at a single debate (though I suspect he will use savvy email marketing campaigns and social media to meet those thresholds somehow) in order to be able to keep pumping out those ads until the final nominee is chosen.
That said, Bannon has been predicting for a while he would step in (or HRC if needed) given the weak field thus far.
It’s all moot: with Trump polling over 30 with the back vote, according to many models he’s a shoo-in. I don’t know about that, but he hasn’t delivered his counterpunch yet, but when he does, I suspect it will be enough to swing most independents in which case the Dems are going to be lucky to get more than 200 electoral votes.
His only successful gun control program was stop and frisk. No other gun control program has succeeded in bringing down crime and the murder rate. Now he is apologizing for it. Nothing will ever please the radical left which consists of the majority of the democrats. Advocating strict gun control will alienate anyone normal. He even admitted that banning so called assault weapons is pointless as the total number of people murdered per year by all rifles is less than 400. Nonetheless he is still for banning them. Hard to reconcile that idiotic idea. Calling Trump an existential threat is also going to piss off a lot of people. That is a pointless statement if he wants to attract independents or Republicans. He would be better at focusing on any of his policy shortfalls like the trillion dollar deficits. He seems otherwise to be more of a conservative democrat. He spoke at my sons college graduation and scolded the snowflakes for being such big pussies. He basically told them to grow one instead of crawling into a safe spot and sucking on mommies teat. The real world is nothing like that and they need to get over it.
He is just another lying politician. Since he knows Stop and Frisk is unpopular with Democrats, he now says it was a bad idea.
Of course stop and frisk was effective, which is why it is a favorite technique of totalitarian governments. The Nazis used it very effectively. My point was simply that Bloomberg is dishonest and deceitful at his core. He used it and defended it for years as mayor but now suddenly apologizes for it and says it was a bad thing. Was he lying then or is he lying now?
Mike turned out to be a big-government mayor of NYC, taxes up, gov’t and labor union employees up (they vote blue!), MTA in ruins, further underfunded pensions, schools worse, roads worse, hey but we NY got new bike lanes (on bad roads), stricter smoking restrictions, Citibikes taking away parking, foolish and slippery-slope restaurant-menu labeling, a moratorium on “large-size sodas” and if we’d kept him any longer, he’d have told everyone what else to do with their lives while making them pay higher taxes to fund his Big Brother style. Treating police and fireman almost as badly as De Blasio, the current even more horrible mayor. Mike can’t even give a speech without reading notecards verbatim. Imagine him getting steamrolled by experienced debaters. No way and no thank you, as president. We need smaller government by and for the people not by and for Mike.