Red Mosquito

Bloomberg being there tonight helps Bernie, right? All the focus was going to be on him for being a frontrunner, but now everyone is salivating to have a shot at Bloomberg.

yes

very much

this is the real life character foil he needs

but he must bring the A-game

this one is for all the marbles

Super Tuesday

it's game time

verb_to_trust wrote:Daddy Billionaire is a treasure trove of these types of quotes:

A newly uncovered video shows Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg in 2019 describing transgender people as “he, she, or it” and “some guy in a dress” who enters girls locker rooms — invoking a conservative cliché as he argued that transgender rights are toxic for presidential candidates trying to reach Middle America.

And yet, Bloomberg’s campaign published a new video on Tuesday that pledged the former New York City mayor believed in “inclusivity” for “LGBTQ+ youth,” featuring fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi declaring, “Mike is so incredibly sensitive to this issue.”

toxic issue indeed

why focus on America's infrastructure decline, cost of education and healthcare, and retirement/pension crisis - issues that affect every American - when we can rip each other's heads off over an issue that affects less than 1% of the population

96583UP wrote:

verb_to_trust wrote:Daddy Billionaire is a treasure trove of these types of quotes:

A newly uncovered video shows Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg in 2019 describing transgender people as “he, she, or it” and “some guy in a dress” who enters girls locker rooms — invoking a conservative cliché as he argued that transgender rights are toxic for presidential candidates trying to reach Middle America.

And yet, Bloomberg’s campaign published a new video on Tuesday that pledged the former New York City mayor believed in “inclusivity” for “LGBTQ+ youth,” featuring fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi declaring, “Mike is so incredibly sensitive to this issue.”

toxic issue indeed

why focus on America's infrastructure decline, cost of education and healthcare, and retirement/pension crisis - issues that affect every American - when we can rip each other's heads off over an issue that affects less than 1% of the population

This ain’t it 96

E.H. Ruddock wrote:Bloomberg being there tonight helps Bernie, right? All the focus was going to be on him for being a frontrunner, but now everyone is salivating to have a shot at Bloomberg.

All Bloomy has to do is keep pivoting back to the broader issues. Sanders cultists are never going to change, their sense of self is too tied into Sanders at this point, but da Klob, Biden, and Mayor Ratface are relying on policy stances and their voters will be in bloom if Mike can keep his cool.

I propose a drinking game we you drink every time someone says "stop and frisk", "disproportionately", "buying the nomination", or "billionaire".

BurtReynolds wrote:which one of you wrote this?

that 'slogan' with that headline is so fucking laughable.

Another good play here by team Bloom:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents ... -Memo.html

Drive some fear into them....

One thing a number of Democratic moderates and connected journalists have claimed in recent weeks is that there's an alarming amount of oppo against Bernie out there. Enough to make him a dangerous choice for candidate.

Assume that's true for a minute. At this point, those campaigns should be dropping those stories TODAY, so they can weaponize them in the debate and Bernie won't have had time to pivot his prepared answers. He's remarkably close to locking the nomination, and nobody is pulling national numbers enough to likely prevent that.

If they don't start dropping oppo, then it's hard not to conclude that it's all bullshit fearmongering (ie "electability"), and that's what people WILL conclude. Which will only serve to make him look like an even safer candidate. There's no world where you are running in the primary, know all this oppo research about the other candidate, and don't put it out there. That's part of how primaries are supposed to vet candidates. If you don't release it, you don't have it.

If I were Bloomberg tonight, I'd keep hitting Sanders on not releasing his remaining health records. I don't think, personally, that it's much of an issue. Hell, they're all almost dead at this point except Pete, who is crap. But if I'm running against Sanders, that's a place to strike. Not releasing the records is a choice in favor of unnecessary secrecy, which is a sensitive concept after the Trump years, and his campaign's framing of a push for medical records as a "smear" campaign is....not great. It's a bit of a Warrenesque misstep. After having a heart attack, and in the context of the way the media handled Clinton's flu in 2016, not releasing your health records is a guarantee of 8 months of "is he well tho" coverage. You've gotta kill it before it starts.

If I were anybody but Bloomberg tonight, though, I'd join in on eating Bloomberg alive. His vast financial advantage is literally the only reason he's able to be on the stage with you, and it's going to continue to work in his favor. This is your one chance to neutralize that. Frankly, I hope they do.

I have to believe the medical record issue will be brought up tonight. The Bernie Bro issue will surface as well. Even if the candidates don't mention it, Chuck Todd will make sure.

Bi_3 wrote:Another good play here by team Bloom:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents ... -Memo.html

Drive some fear into them....

This seems to be about having the moderate lane coalesce around one candidate to stop Sanders, and of course that candidate is Bloomberg. I don't see how this is a "good play" since it's the same play they'll all make. Also, again, polling shows Bernie winning any one-one contest. Obviously nothing is decided yet, but I don't think scaring people in to a "stop Bernie" maneuver is going to work.

Yeah, if the urgency was really about stopping Bernie they'd concentrate on elevating someone who is more "conventional," or more of a party player, but who can still appeal to the progressive agenda. Less than 38% of registered Democrats consider Sanders to be "too progressive." You'll never win this primary with a straight up moderate.

If you want moderation, you still have to find someone with progressive clout...but who just happens to be more balanced about it.

You're right that "we have to stop person x" talk is mostly a way to try and jockey people into joining your team (see also: every progressive candidate back when Biden was the frontrunner). But in this case, the reason they won't try and "stop Bernie" with another candidate who appeals to the progressive agenda is because it's also about stopping the progressive agenda, which is a problem because that agenda is by far the most popular platform among party voters, and it also contains enough ambitions that are popular with moderates and/or independent voters that progressives aren't inclined to worry over how it will play nationally.

Let's face it, electing a leader of a party or nation now has nothing to do with policies being presented. I have zero faith in any leader or party doing a tenth of what they say. Electing a leader seems to be about electing the person you're most likely to agree with when they lie to you.
Between Trump, Trudeau and these primaries my nihilistic nature is having a grand day at the spa. Luxuriating in the malaise.

surfndestroy wrote:Let's face it, electing a leader of a party or nation now has nothing to do with policies being presented. I have zero faith in any leader or party doing a tenth of what they say. Electing a leader seems to be about electing the person you're most likely to agree with when they lie to you.
Between Trump, Trudeau and these primaries my nihilistic nature is having a grand day at the spa. Luxuriating in the malaise.

Misreading. You'd be hard pressed to find a presidency that lived up to its campaign proposals anywhere in history. Any ambition has to be processed through government, courts, and time. These are affecting agents at the least, and in many cases outright preventative ones.

The purpose of a platform isn't to tell you exactly what the candidate will achieve in office, but rather what their philosophy of change is relative to the current state. It's a framing of dreams, not a roadmap.

McParadigm wrote:

surfndestroy wrote:Let's face it, electing a leader of a party or nation now has nothing to do with policies being presented. I have zero faith in any leader or party doing a tenth of what they say. Electing a leader seems to be about electing the person you're most likely to agree with when they lie to you.
Between Trump, Trudeau and these primaries my nihilistic nature is having a grand day at the spa. Luxuriating in the malaise.

Misreading. You'd be hard pressed to find a presidency that lived up to its campaign proposals anywhere in history. Any ambition has to be processed through government, courts, and time. These are affecting agents at the least, and in many cases outright preventative ones.

The purpose of a platform isn't to tell you exactly what the candidate will achieve in office, but rather what their philosophy of change is relative to the current state. It's a framing of dreams, not a roadmap.

If that were only true.
Trump = I will lie to you
Trudeau = Posturing and word salad over any action
Sanders = You think Obama was stymied in getting anything done
Bloomberg = Palpatine as my role model
Others = You like me, you really like me
Putin = Love me or death

I'm looking forward to seeing Bloomberg on stage tonight and hearing what he has to say and how he handles the criticism coming his way. I honestly don't have much of an opinion on him, good or bad, at the moment.
Count me as one of those who think if the Dems really do nominate an 80 year old actual socialist they'd be gifting Trump another four years.

Chuck Todd is a joke

i miss tim russert

Rob wrote:I have to believe the medical record issue will be brought up tonight. The Bernie Bro issue will surface as well. Even if the candidates don't mention it, Chuck Todd will make sure.

Bi_3 wrote:Another good play here by team Bloom:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents ... -Memo.html

Drive some fear into them....

This seems to be about having the moderate lane coalesce around one candidate to stop Sanders, and of course that candidate is Bloomberg. I don't see how this is a "good play" since it's the same play they'll all make. Also, again, polling shows Bernie winning any one-one contest. Obviously nothing is decided yet, but I don't think scaring people in to a "stop Bernie" maneuver is going to work.

Looking at poor Warrren and Biden, you see that dems primary voters are still fickle other than the Bernie bros. The sum of Bloomy, 50% of Biden, 50% of da Klob, and 50% of ratface is basically equal to Sanders in most polls, if not more, and those 3 are on the down slide.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epoll ... ion_polls/

Any reasonable showing by Bloomy tonight will siphon off most of their remaining support.

The sum of Bloomy, 50% of Biden, 50% of da Klob, and 50% of ratface is basically equal to Sanders in most polls, if not more, and those 3 are on the down slide.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epoll ... ion_polls/

Any reasonable showing by Bloomy tonight will siphon off most of their remaining support.

The most frequent second choice among current Biden supporters is Bernie Sanders, according to polling. I think the only group that ranks Bloomberg as their principle second choice is Pete's.

tragabigzanda wrote:It boggles my mind that Warren fell so hard and so fast. Is this largely attributed to the experts' pushback on her Medicare For All plan?

She hasn't fallen nearly as far as Biden, but yeah...it was mostly the unforced error of overexplaining, mixed with the fact that her ascension coincided with the time frame where every single media article and every single institutional push was on Biden, Biden, Biden, and when the idea that a progressive might become the frontrunner was being presented as a pipe dream.

I don't think she really got much of a fair treatment, to be honest....see a recent poll, which left her off entirely (and explained, hilariously, that "we only had room for Warren or Klobuchar, so we made a choice on that"...like, what you ran out of space? The hell does that mean?).