Opinion by: Saagar Enjeti
The Democratic race may have another billionaire entrant here to save the day.
Former Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, has filed paperwork to get on the ballot in the state of Alabama. A seemingly mystifying late possible entry to the race that is sure to change….well absolutely nothing to be honest, and if it does, it is not going to go the way that he hopes.
Bloomberg advisor Howard Wolfson tweeted yesterday that the current democratic field is “not well positioned” to defeat Donald Trump. It takes a lot of hubris for a mealy-mouthed technocrat like Bloomberg sees the populist rise of Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Donald Trump and think that his brand of centrism is poised to catch on.
The best part, of course, is that Bloomberg’s gamble is absolutely destined for failure, even if he did begin to catch on, because the greatest beneficiary of his rise would be Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. Let me explain. Bloomberg has made the same problem that many in the media have: he sees the faltering of Joe Biden and concludes that the race is missing a strong and experienced centrist like himself who can unite all sides.
Absolutely wrong. Bloomberg was elected in New York City on the backs of the professional managerial class, literally. These people are upper middle-class white liberals to their very core. So who exactly do you think would even flock to him in such a scenario?
Well guess what, those upper middle-class white liberals all support Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg. Bloomberg has no chance to win over the overwhelming amount of black voters in this country who support Joe Biden, the Latino voters who are backing Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, or the white working-class voters across the country who back Biden, Sanders, and yes, Donald Trump. The crossover support he has is purely with candidates like Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Pete Buttigieg.
In other words, say Bloomberg catches on, the top leaders in the field will probably be Bernie Sanders followed by Joe Biden and then some combination of Warren, Bloomberg, and Buttigieg. He could all but ensure a Bernie Sanders victory, which I’m reasonably certain would actually be far worse for him than the Elizabeth Warren presidency that he is so afraid of.
As Osita Nwanevu said on Twitter after the announcement, it seems like billionaires don’t spend their wealth that efficiently after all! Especially considering that Tom Steyer spent almost 7 million dollars a minute of speaking time that he got in the last debate, and whose campaign is embroiled in scandal for allegedly offering campaign contributions up to elected officials in Iowa if they endorse him.
The key here. of course, in both cases is how ludicrous Bloomberg’s candidacy appears and how much hubris a person must have to think that because they were good at standardizing financial news they can rise to the occasion and become president of the United States.
I’ll leave you with this particular gem. It’s the man who wants to be president saying that Chinese president Xi Jinping really isn’t a dictator. Is he a Chinese asset? He’ll have to answer that question this campaign cycle.
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