Money can’t buy a good debate performance, as former New York City Mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg learned Wednesday.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1292201
Bloomberg Hammered From All Sides At Debate, Offering Little To Defend Himself | Talking Points Memo
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1292201
Bloomberg won’t recover from tonight’s performance. Even if he could, he won’t have time.
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(Kersplash)
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“Everyone came to destroy Mike tonight,” Bloomberg’s campaign manager Kevin Sheekey said in a statement after the debate. “It didn’t happen.”
Must have been watching a different debate cause stick a fork in Bloomberg, he’s done.
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I’ve seen quite a few Bloomberg defenders, or at least Bloomberg-curious folks in these comment threads over the last week or so.
I’m genuinely curious what they thought of his performance tonight…
Any takers?
(I promise not to dump on you for supporting him…though I guess I can’t promise others won’t.)
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Well that was a well spent 300 million.
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Most Americans were not watching. He can beat Trump the rest is silence.
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“I said we’re not going to end these [NDA] agreements because they were made consensually.”
Most tone-deaf (if not blatantly ignorant and stupid) comment of the year. And that’s a pretty high bar to cross, given Trump’s efforts…
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“Bloomberg who?”
Well, I wasn’t one…I have been very skeptical of the media/pollster meme of chasing after Bloomberg since NH. His strategy makes very little sense in a primary where every contest is awarding delegates proportionally for one thing. And he hadn’t been on a debate stage, or really faced any sort of hard, face-face vetting.
He did tonight. And he wilted. I saw that his futures in the betting places dropped by over 9 points in the first hour of the debate alone. And it never got better.
It wasn’t just one bad topic, he literally got destroyed on every topic thrown his way. And not just destroyed, his responses were all completely bad.
The electorate is going to be undergoing another realignment before SC and NV (even though he isn’t on those ballots, it bleeds through). And realignment is probably even the wrong word. I think basically that the electorate for this primary has become extremely fluid, and we could see some pretty sudden shifts going forward.
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That whole exchange with Warren was his worst moments of the night…and he had a lot of very bad moments.
But she absolutely destroyed him on that.
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Watching Michael Bloomberg all I could think was, “I really really don’t want this guy representing my party.” That’s the message I think Warren was trying to get out and I am so grateful to her for doing it.
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If we are so chickenshit about some really great candidates’ electability that we would turn to a billionaire Republican in Democrat’s clothing, then we deserve Trump. Anyone who celebrates Mikey’s millions being spent hasn’t noticed how his ads have turned from slamming TRump to slamming people like Warren and Sanders because their proposals might shave a few millions off of his and his buddies’ unimaginable fortunes. Watching this guy buy his way into the election without doing any of the ground work has been a real eye opener into the fetid mess that is American pay to play politics.
I said I would vote for a dead dog if it was the candidate against Trump, but I would have to think long and hard about someone like Bloomberg. I suppose I would pull the lever, but then I would have to go through some kind of decontamination process. This guy’s “I can buy anything” shtick is just disgusting, and his bullshit about saving America by cutting entitlements makes me want to scream. The only people who think we need to cut earned benefit programs like Medicare and social security are those that do not need them.
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I agree.
Elsewhere on this website David Kurtz referred to Warren’s devastating cross-examination of Bloomberg as “a withering fusillade.”
It was. And he withered. And then shriveled even further as he got smacked again and again.
It’s been widely reported that Bloomberg prepared extensively for this debate, it was predicted that would be ready to defend himself vigorously and had rehearsed hard-hitting takedowns of the other candidates. None of that materialized.
Meanwhile his affect was mostly a mix of sneering and whining…not a good look for for any candidate.
I don’t know whether this shambolic performance will have a significant effect on his TV-advertising-and-bought-social-media-influencers driven support. But I think it’s a pretty safe bet that he didn’t help himself tonight.
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If you want to know where Bloomberg is right now, just follow the blood trail from the debate stage
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I saw an interesting thread on Twitter about this.
Basically, the conclusion was that, even if Bloomberg is every bit as horrible as Trump, for the sake of our democracy, vote for him.
Because he is a Democrat. And once a Democrat is in the White House, every freaking republican in Congress is going to suddenly remember all about Oversight and Checks&Balances and the Constitution.
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I assume that Bloomberg just wants to pick the eventual candidate and thus is attempting to snag as many delegates as he can. I doubt he believes he can be or even wants to be the nominee. He just wants to be a king maker at the convention.
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It is always great to watch a guy who is used to having his balls waxed by everyone, get kicked in the balls.
It was like an episode of…
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Yes, he will.
Sanders is atop polls in CA
Bloomberg is on top in AK, VA, NC.
A lot of folks do not watch the debates…
Media ads will drown out Sanders.
Bloomberg also let loose a zinger tonight. “The candidate who is self-proclaim socialist is a millionaire with 3 homes”. It was first time many voters heard he’s a millionaire. Bloomberg needs to hammer that line repeatedly like Warren did him about NDA’s.
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i posted this in another thread:
strangely i think bloomberg won the debate. all the others seemed angry, shrill and petty. bloomberg remained calm. did not apologize for spending his money on democrats and to defeat trump. and most of all, did you notice how the entire stage went silent when he said he was the only one who started a business, a wildly successful one at that. those that can, do. those that cant go into career politics.
i dont necessarily support bloomberg. but the others did have an offputting attitude tonight.
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