For those of you who watched the Democratic Debate held in Las Vegas Monday night, you know (or should know by now) that it was absolutely terrible for the democratic party. Insults were being thrown around like a bunch of school children at a playground and the obvious victor was Donald Trump. However, the debate had 20 million viewers in total mostly because of the first appearance of Michael Bloomberg on stage. So let me get this straight: Bernie Sanders has just crushed everyone in the polls and yet the debate Wednesday night in Las Vegas was all about the democrats beating Bloomberg to a pulp? Why would you target Bloomberg who is in second place and not even touch Sanders who, arguable, has the worst chance of beating Trump AND is in first place in the polls? Good job democrats, good job. Identity politics and virtue signaling that you hate billionaires and anyone who is white, as always, took over the debate stage. After all, that is the sole purpose they went after Bloomberg wednesday night. He is just too easy to pick on. At least this is what many people believe but after a lot of thinking, Im going to throw out some unpopular opinions and see what you guys think. I believe the Bloomberg allegations are not only wrong but, at the very least, weak as well.

1. Lets start with the big one: Stop and Frisk. Biden, Sanders, and Warren absolutely slammed this man about this policy. Is Michael Bloomberg to blame for african american and hispanic people being the overwhelming majority of the people being stopped? Yes, he did enact the policy that’s true, however the policy simply gives more power to the police so that they can stop people who they believe to be a threat to the area. Now if anyone here is being racist, in my opinion, it is the police force. Not Michael Bloomberg. Also, this so called terrible plan helped drive the number of murders down by 50% in New York City which I would call a significant drop. Personally, I think Bloomberg’s biggest mistake here is going on the defensive when being asked and challenged about this policy. He makes himself weak and an easy target when he just hides in the corner of the debate stage apologizing for a mistake that he made….if you would call it a mistake on his part. He could have easily gone on the offensive and argued that he was mayor for three terms of the most diverse city in the U.S and talked about how he has created millions of jobs through his company as well as donating very large amounts of money.

2. Claim: Michael Bloomberg is trying to buy the Democratic Nomination. C’mon really? That is what you are going to use to your advantage? Yes, he is a billionaire who is spending more money than the other candidates but it is for advertisements people. If we are assuming that the citizens of the United States are smart people (which they are and we should assume we are dealing with smart people) than why do ads matter when it comes to a nominee? We should educate ourselves on the nominees and know them regardless of how many ads we see or who can purchase the most time on national television. For example, when we watched the Super Bowl are we assuming that everyone who watched the Bloomberg ads are immediately jumping to the conclusion that he is the best candidate? No. We are not idiots and we know marketing when we see it. So don’t give me this “he is trying to buy our party” garbage. First of all, he polled in second place so clearly people like him whether you anti-billionaire’s like it or not and second of all, he is simply throwing money at ads so he can get his name out there since he has only been campaigning for like 3-4 months or something.

3. Last claim I will address: Mayor Bloomberg will not be able to beat Trump. My prediction is that Donald Trump will win the 2020 election (read my post: The Democrats Dilemma for more on that) however, if any one can come close to Trump in the polls and in winning the battle ground states needed it is Michael Bloomberg. He is a Moderate Democrat who has led a large city for three terms as mayor and has started his own business from the ground up. He is not into throwing large policy changes like Universal HealthCare or Free tuition for all and understands economics enough to know that you can’t just immediately ban industries from performing business (ie: Fracking). He cares about the environment enough to win over moderates and independents who care about that issue the most as well as health care which is a topic that he can get bipartisan support on since he believes in keeping the private plans alive. He is a billionaire who can take on Trump if he can learn to be better on stage because the first hour of the debate was not a strong showing for Bloomberg.

All in all, Wednesday night was a bad day for democrats. If democrats are smart they will look to break Sanders and challenge him on policies that he has yet to explain himself at Tuesday nights debate. Bloomberg is a solid candidate and hopefully he can perform a little better Tuesday because lets face it, Bloomberg is all the Democrats have left to take on Trump and actually be able to compete against him.

Upon reading Bloomberg.com, I came across an article talking about how the candidates on the left are describing Michael Bloomberg. Klobuchar, Biden and Sanders have all talked about his “racist” policies such as the controversial stop and frisk act. This is policy essentially allowed police more authority in stopping citizens and patting them down to make sure that they were not doing anything illegal. While this is an easy policy to bring up in order to lower Bloomberg’s numbers, the democrats need to stop ragging on their competitors if they are to beat Donald Trump in this next election.

“Mayor Bloomberg, with all his money, will not create the kind of excitement and energy we need to have the voter turnout we must have to defeat Donald Trump.” This is a quote from Bernie Sanders on, of course, Michael Bloomberg. But let’s imagine Bloomberg actually wins the primaries and goes head to head with Trump. How will that look in the eyes of an average citizen when the candidate they supported ragged on the democratic candidate going toe to toe with the former president? Further sub-dividing the democratic party, by separating every one into the candidate that they prefer, will only bolster Trump’s chances of getting re-elected. Let me explain. When you sub-divide the left into the candidates they support, when the democratic candidates start degrading the other candidates of their own party in order to enhance their numbers, and you throw in the fact that the current president has a cult-like following which will only grow unless dealt with properly, then you have a shrinking, fragmented party that will not win in November. Democratic nominees need to focus on their own campaigning, and if they are falling behind then they need to support one another in order to grow the party and, most importantly, try their best to connect with the right so that they can have long term success in the election process.

Lets go through the candidates shall we? I’ll make it quick. Bernie Sanders has lot’s of support on the left, particularly the far left. What he doesn’t have however is the most important. No support from the independents or the right, no matter how much Trump screws up this year because they will not support an extreme democrat like Bernie Sanders. Elizabeth Warren is in the same ballpark. Pete Buttigieg is also rising in the ranks. Pete has the advantage of being thought of as a “moderate” which helps him within the independent party and perhaps even with the moderate republicans as well. I think Pete is spot on with not supporting a universal health care that will not function like many think it will and he also has the presentation and demeanor that a president should have on stage. Joe Biden, on the other hand, is getting old and it is not helping his game. He stutters, his temper flares easily, and he is falling downhill fast in the polls but we will see how he does in the primaries. Last, but certainly not least, Amy Klobuchar. She has potential in my opinion due to her being a moderate relative to Bernie and Warren, as well as staying out of the drama that candidates seem to fall in with their lives on public display. The only problem with Klobuchar is that I don’t think she has what it takes to stand up against Donald Trump. Michael Bloomberg has what it takes and he actually has a decent track record being the mayor of New York City for three terms. He has the money to advertise, he has the guts to stand up to Trump, and he may be able to pull some independents and moderate republicans.

My prediction: If the democrats are smart, they would select Bloomberg because I think he has the best chance to win it. However, I think Mayor Pete may take it. Whoever the winner on the left is, the President of the United States in 2020 will be Donald J. Trump.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-16/bloomberg-faces-attacks-from-democrats-as-he-rises-in-polls?srnd=premium&sref=7tFHwBwF