Bloomberg and Bernie: Dilemma for the Democrats
Frazer Rice and I tackled some of the bigger issues in the Democratic Primary in our most recent podcast.
If an elected official (helpful if it’s a Democrat) like Mayor Pete, Vice President Biden, Senator Klobuchar or Senator Warren wins fair and square, establishment Democrats don’t have a problem. Shrug their shoulders and hope their candidate wins in November.
It is somewhat the same for Tom Steyer (even if he is an unelected billionaire outsider) because at least he cares about hot button issues like climate change. To the extent he is a problem, he really isn’t much of a one because he is a long way from viability let along winning.
The problems for establishment Democrats are Senator Bernie Sanders and Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Though elected officials, one is a self-described Democratic Socialist and the other was recently a Republican.
There is legitimate concern that a Sanders candidacy would cause a landslide in November. Not in their preferred direction. The Democratic Party does not want to be seen to thumb the scale against him yet again. It is not that they care about him, but they do like his supporters.
That leaves Mike Bloomberg, the major focus of the podcast. In it, we cover:
- Beat Trump vs. Buy Election
- Democratic dilemma about Sanders
- Debate format is counterproductive
- Our advice to Bloomberg
- Trump’s reaction
Here is the link to the podcast
Peter W Bragdon, February 26, 2020 at 9:58 pm said:
Friedman’s editorial in the “New York Times” of today — Wednesday, February 26th — is in the must-read category.
Haven Pell, February 27, 2020 at 8:52 am said:
Thanks, Pete. The op-ed is entitled Dems, you can defeat Trump in a landslide. Here is a link from the NYT app that I hope will work. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/25/opinion/democratic-primary-candidates.html?referringSource=articleShare
Naming one’s cabinet in advance would reflect the reality of the presidency. It is not just one person. On the other hand, it would give opponents more opportunities for opposition research.
Friedman’s choices of cabinet nominees seem to be driven more by politics than capability but at least he is taking capability into account.
He falls short in suggesting Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for the U.N. She is little more than an avatar for a progressive donor who put her in the seat.