Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

How Bloomberg helps Bernie

The elite eats itself, again

Who likes Mike? The billionaire Michael Bloomberg has ended years of speculation by announcing that he is running to be president in 2020.

You can see his twinkling piano new campaign ad here. The video pitches him as the reluctant hero who always steps up when America needs him. Keep those inspiring chord changes coming: it’s the sound of a hundred political consultants getting very rich.

https://twitter.com/MikeBloomberg/status/1198620233994526722

Bloomberg, who is considerably richer than the man in the White House, long ago put aside an enormous slush fund to stop Trump winning re-election.

He probably would have been willing to throw his enormous financial muscle behind a Democrat he rated. But Bloomberg has now acknowledged a truth, one I wrote about for the magazine three weeks ago — the Democrats seem embarrassingly unable to produce a candidate who can beat Trump at the ballot. With 70 days to go until the Iowa caucuses, the situation is getting desperate. Enter Mike — armed with an outrageously large campaign treasure chest and a data operation most candidates would kill for.

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Everybody knows the lane for a good moderate candidate is wide open. Democrats have started to hype the possibility of a Donald Trump vs Hillary Clinton rematch — including Hillary herself. ‘Don’t tempt me,’ she tweeted, after Trump teasingly suggested that she run again, and in her recent tour of London she repeatedly hinted she might take on that ‘gutsy’ challenge.

Maybe that’s why Bloomberg has entered the race again — to save centrists from having to support Hillary Clinton again. For that service to humanity, perhaps he deserves to win.

Certainly, he’ll be eager to take on Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator, who is still the bookies’ favorite to be nominee. Ever since she released ‘Medicare-for-all’ plan, to very little acclaim, her candidacy seems to have derailed.

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