Kevin Sheekey, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s campaign manager, admitted on Thursday that his boss’ debut in the Democratic presidential primary debate wasn’t pretty.
Ya think?
He tanked because he’s a lousy candidate with a shit record on every social movement we’ve had in the last decade. He had the police terrorize Occupy Wall Street. When people said Black Lives Matter, he chuckled and said no they don’t, now get against the wall and spread 'em. And when women said, ‘Me Too’ Mike told them to shut up and get him a beer, right after signing their NDA. How could this man not appeal to democrats the country over?
Mike’s okay on climate change. Not so much anything else though.
Sheekey did much better than Bloomberg.
This is a great analysis by Martin Longman.
As much as I enjoyed watching Michael Bloomberg get carved up like a Thanksgiving turkey or Sanders take incoming over the behavior of his supporters and staff, and as satisfying as it was for Buttigieg and Klobuchar to drop their Mr. and Mrs. Nice act and let their raw ambition shine, what I really enjoyed was seeing the candidates let their emotions and values drive their performance.
Like most everyone else, I’ve grown tired of watching Sanders deliver the same old lines in debate after debate, but having Bloomberg beside him as the personification of everything he loathes really brought out a fresh passion in him and let us see how deeply he believes in what he’s saying. Bloomberg’s presence did much the same thing for Warren, who unleashed every bit of bottled up outrage she had in her reservoir. And she spared no one on the stage. Podhoretz compared her performance to Machine Gun Kelly, and that’s pretty accurate. However, her aim was excellent.
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A lot of the commentariat was somewhere between disconcerted and horrified by the overall incivility of the debate, but I thought it was tremendously revealing. More than any debate I can remember watching, we got to see behind all the posturing and strategizing that usually makes debates nothing more than performative art. It takes a monumental amount of ambition and self-conceit to think you should be president and it’s a good thing to see people drop the nice act and bring out the knives in an effort to win. But it was more than just seeing the candidates act like they really care about their campaigns. When they let their emotions rule them for a change, they gave us a better picture of the kind of issues and values that drive them.
The Kochs and Edelsons pour money into campaigns without putting themselves in the spotlight. Howard Schultz, Bloomberg and Steyer can bombard the airwaves with anti-Trump ads without running themselves if they choose to, but where’s the attention and drama in that? They are Republicans who know they don’t stand a chance of winning as Republicans.
The Internet agrees. Last night Bloomberg’s Wikipedia entry read that he died on February 20, 2020 in Las Vegas, NV. Cause of death: “Getting stabbed by Warren, Biden and Sanders”.
Gotta give props for the honesty here, Bloomberg was pretty awful last night, he didn’t have anything to defend against what were going to be obvious points of attack. And, that’s not a good sign in a candidate you want to take on Trump.
His greatest contribution to the primary may end up being that he’s given new life to Warren…people are calling her takedown of him over the NDAs the most effective thing they have seen in a debate in recent history. If she really managed to take out his campaign in his first few minutes on the stage, that’s actually going to be huge…whether it helps her win the nomination is still TBD. But, she’s proven that she can thrash a billionaire without breaking a sweat, that makes her look very appealing compared to the others when you think about who you want to debate against Trump.
Actually, it just said “Cause of Death: Senator Elizabeth Warren”, and that really is all that it took. I think Warren shook everyone up with the way she went after him, and then them…they haven’t seen Liz unchained and they sure weren’t prepared for it.
I didn’t catch the interview last night but the summary is far more candid than is normal, as in actually admitting Bloomberg tanked. He definitely was brought down to earth. As I said elsewhere, Bloomberg may have more money than God but he has neither the presence nor the delivery. Warren went for the man’s jugular and wouldn’t let go.
It was a gigantic food-fight and Bloomberg got the worst of it.
The screenshot I saw listed all three. Either way, funny stuff.
“Tanked” would be a significant upgrade.
Bloomberg did so bad, Melanoma’s “BeBest” campaign was a smashing global success by comparison.
This is pretty standard “setting expectations” stuff, right? Just the after-the-fact version, instead of the before-the-debate version, where the campaign manager “admits” that the candidate barely even speaks English, and that it will be an enormous win if he so much as strings together a complete sentence.
Given that everyone knew the field would land some body blows, I’d have been surprised if we’d heard anything different—even in an alternate reality where the rest of us were grudgingly admitting Bloomberg had outperformed expectations.
He is not used to such direct criticism. Trump would eventually eviscerate him.
What we need is an Elizabeth Warren with Michael Bloomberg’s money.
I’ve been warming up to Bloomberg precisely because of the money factor. Wouldn’t it be wonderful, for a change, to have the Democrats flush with campaign cash? It’s usually the reverse. I decided that this election to put my idealism aside and be more strategic about choosing a candidate. A Bloomberg candidacy, with his bottomless cash flow, would allow the party to direct resources to to flip the senate. His performance last night is concerning to say the least. He’s not used to being attacked because he is so insulated, as people with his vast wealth usually are. But if he’s going to run for office he better get up to speed.
Bloomberg tanked since the moment he stepped out from behind his vaunted magic business terminal, as far as I’m concerned. If he’s really the savior to beat The Rump, it would be fair to wonder to what end?
Thanks for sharing the Longman analysis. It was marevlous!
I’d rather Bloomberg spent his unlimited money throwing 23 Republican Senators out, than on promoting himself. Let the DNC focus on the POTUS.
