It remains to be seen whether Liz Warren stuck a dagger in the heart of Mayor Bloomberg's "unpresidented" financially "yuge" campaign, but it does appear he took a big hit Wednesday night. Anyone who thought the former New York Mayor and Megabillionaire would be the "man of the people" was sorely disappointed. Old Bloom was just himself -- an arrogant billionaire who thought he could buy an election like he did in New York.
Liz wasn't the only one to go after him. All the Democrats did. What's worse is that Bloomberg just stood there rolling his eyes, unable to offer any witty retort as he made no effort to prepare for the debate. As expected, he tried to spin the debate the next day as a "win," but no one was buying it, except the facebook advertisement department.
He's literally pouring a million dollars per day into facebook ads in an effort to win over the imaginary facebook audience. His effort to make him look hip by paying influencers to post memes expressing his coolness hasn't exactly paid off. Anyone can post a meme, flattering or unflattering. It doesn't matter how much money you pour into your campaign, you have to find a way to seize the public imagination. This is what won it for Trump back in 2016, and he didn't even have to pay for it.
To this point, Bloomberg has far outspent what Trump spent on his entire campaign four years ago, and other than a temporary blip in the national polls, he hasn't seemed to gain much traction. The only saving grace is that he is not on the ballot in Nevada, so he can brush off the caucus this weekend and keep his beady little eyes focused on Super Tuesday.
The debate however was a disaster. No one thought he did well, not even those who would be sympathetic to him. He was torn apart from the get-go and his feeble responses did little to restore confidence in him. Liz continued her withering attack the next day, basically saying that it is Mayor Bloom who should go home, and not the rest of the Democratic field, so that he can fight it out with Bernie Sanders for the remainder of the primaries.
The ironic part, as Mayor Pete pointed out, is that neither he nor Bernie are Democrats. They only registered as Democrats to run in the primaries. Bernie switched back to being an Independent after his failed bid in 2016 only to re-register as a Democrat when he chose to run again in 2019. Mayor Bloom registered as a Democrat for the first time last year.
Bloomberg probably wouldn't even be in the race had not Liz announced her wealth tax last October. Within days, Bloomberg announced his campaign fearing a Warren presidency would take a devastating toll on his wealth. By her "wealth tax calculator," he stood to lose over $3 billion. Why not spend that money on his own presidential run? He's been toying with the idea for the past two decades.
For whatever reason, Liz lost her momentum in the following months and her campaign appeared to be dying on the vine. However, she re-emerged Wednesday night as a formidable contender, declared the clear debate winner in virtually all media outlets. She just needed someone to go after like Mayor Bloom.
Unfortunately, Bernie escaped the debate with nary a scratch. Pete threw a few barbs at him, but nothing that stuck. The former South Bend mayor had to fend off Amy Klobuchar, who has been nipping at his heels for months. However, this time she failed to leave any marks, and most likely will fade in the upcoming primaries and drop out by Super Tuesday. As for Biden, he might as well not shown up for the little impact he made on the debate.
Bloomberg would have been better advised to take a pass on the debate as well, as he was clearly unprepared for the grilling that took place. This is surprising since his campaign team had to know Liz would go after him. She said so herself. Instead, they just went into damage control mode.
One never knows how things will turn. Trump didn't do well in the Republican primary debates either, as his Friends at Fox reminded him, and yet still emerged as the nominee. There are a lot of people who think that only with Bloomberg's money do the Democrats stand a chance in November. It's not likely that he will bankroll another candidate after the beating he took Wednesday night, and who would want his endorsement anyway. So, Bloom has no choice but to gut it out and hope that Democrats will choose his acute business sense over the social programs the other Democrats are promising.
Whatever the case, the veil has been lifted for all to see. Liz summed it up best, "Democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another." Mayor Bloom is not the answer.
Comments
Post a Comment