He might have to legally sell that time to a PAC, rather than use it for his dormant candidacy. Right now the ads end with the "I'm Mike Bloomberg, and I approved this message." I don't know if a non-running candidate can run opposition ads under their own name. Maybe because he's still on the ballot he could, but why run them now before the primary vs. waiting and running them in October?
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Bloomberg for President?
- Thread starter Bob001
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dudalb
Penultimate Amazing
I have gotten a new Bloomberg mailer here in California at the rate of one every day for the past week.
But that is history now...
dudalb
Penultimate Amazing
Actually he could probably just transfer the ad space to Biden if that is his choice.
angrysoba
Philosophile
Bloomberg's going to need a massive dustbin of history.
I hope he wasn't running on any environmental causes.
In fact, what was he running on?
Was it, "I'm Bloomberg, and I have more money than Trump?"
Pretty stoopid platform.
Puppycow
Penultimate Amazing
Doubt it. Pesky election finance laws. He can spend all the money he wants on his own campaign, but there are limits to how much he can donate to another candidate's campaign.
A PAC (or "Superpac"?) on the other hand is probably OK, thanks to Citizens United.
PhantomWolf
Penultimate Amazing
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- Mar 6, 2007
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I didn't really come in to tell the "Bloomberg is buying the election, woe to the world" crowd that "I told you so," but.....
Trebuchet
Penultimate Amazing
He can probably pay for all the anti-Trump ads he likes, just out of his own pocket. "No candidate paid for this ad" at the end.
thaiboxerken
Penultimate Amazing
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- Sep 17, 2001
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- 35,088
The Citizens United decision protects Bloomberg in this instance. His ad-buys are protected as free speech. I don't agree with the SCOTUS decision on this, but it's a weapon that wealthy democrats can use as well as wealthy Trumpublicans.
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TurkeysGhost
Penultimate Amazing
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Ken Klippenstein article in The Nation about how some Bloomberg staffers were just grifting the campaign. Paid staffers were doing the bare minimum of work, faking internal numbers, campaigning for other candidates, and otherwise undermining the effort.
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/bloomberg-campaign-warren/
It warms the heart.
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/bloomberg-campaign-warren/
It warms the heart.
The Great Zaganza
Maledictorian
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don't think he really cares. In fact, not looking as greedy as Trump might have been one of his messages.
theprestige
Penultimate Amazing
"The way that billionaire spends pocket change really show's he's not greedy," said no one ever.
A more likely message might be, "greed is good, and I'm way better at it than the other guy."
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And running a pointless campaign to bankroll a legion of grifters might not be a great look either.
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Segnosaur
Penultimate Amazing
Looks like Bloomberg may not be totally disappearing...
From: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/v...ump_children_if_they_pursue_hunter_biden.html
Bloomberg campaign adviser Tim O'Brien hinted that Mike Bloomberg may use his campaign cash on behalf of Joe Biden to take aim at President Trump's family's business dealings if Trump continues his allegations that Hunter Biden inappropriately made money in Ukraine while his father was vice president. He said Jared Kushner, Ivanka, Don Jr., and Eric Trump would face scrutiny "unlike anything they’ve experienced thus far in the media."
I have some respect for Bloomberg in this... people accused him of trying to 'buy' the election, but he does seem to have a real interest in ensuring the Democrats win the presidency.
From: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/v...ump_children_if_they_pursue_hunter_biden.html
Bloomberg campaign adviser Tim O'Brien hinted that Mike Bloomberg may use his campaign cash on behalf of Joe Biden to take aim at President Trump's family's business dealings if Trump continues his allegations that Hunter Biden inappropriately made money in Ukraine while his father was vice president. He said Jared Kushner, Ivanka, Don Jr., and Eric Trump would face scrutiny "unlike anything they’ve experienced thus far in the media."
I have some respect for Bloomberg in this... people accused him of trying to 'buy' the election, but he does seem to have a real interest in ensuring the Democrats win the presidency.
Suddenly
No Punting
Interest, yes. Political savvy, no.
He doesn't grasp the power of the false equivalence here. That Trump's people are absolute crooks is well understood and known. All going deeper at Trump being a dishonest crook is going to do is call attention to one of Biden's biggest vulnerabilities.
The likes of Bloomberg see Biden's son being on a corporate board of a Ukrainian company based on who is father is as not real corruption because it is legal. It is the sort of gaming of the system that they take for granted.
There are a ton of people when confronted with this see them as equal problems and a lot of people see Biden's end as worse. Trump being an unapologetic thief carries an air of nobility compared to those who simply rig the system in their favor.
This is basically the reason why you see movies putting a straight up criminal as the likable hero or at least sympathetically conflicted anti-hero, and the establishment person wanting to pave over the park to put up a hotel or whatever as the villain.
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Bloomberg knows that going after Trump's kids will freak him more than anything else anybody could do. I suspect that might be a big part of his motivation.
As to what might be called "clean graft" -- insider connections that aren't illegal -- you'd have to cast a big net, starting with every congressman and senator who joins a lobbying firm for a zillion-dollar salary. Hunter Biden is trivial in terms of the big picture. For starters, he's always been a private citizen; Ivanka and Jared are actually federal government employees on their father's staff.
Segnosaur
Penultimate Amazing
Perhaps not among many of Trump's supporters. They often live in their own little media bubble. Seeing a multi-million dollar ad campaign in prime time showing the Trump's clan's various shenanigans might be an eye-opener for some.
Keep in mind that the plan is to go after Trump's family if Trump goes after Hunter Biden. (In other words, Bloomberg will step in and go after the Trump family if Trump is already calling attention to Hunter.) He won't proactively go after them (as far as I understand.)
And if Trump is going after Hunter Biden, how will pointing out Trump Jr., Kushner and Eric's various frauds make things worse for the Bidens? If anything, it would provide a distraction.
Suddenly
No Punting
Then we need a big net. Trump offered a big net. Sanders is offering one. Biden will never offer one and that makes this a trap issue. "Our crooks at least bother to observe the letter of the law" is not a particularly compelling position.
Suddenly
No Punting
"Sounds like more liberal sour grapes. I wish they'd leave Trump alone to do his job instead of these lies."
So now an admission this is a politically motivated campaign against the President's children? And here I was worried it wouldn't come off as credible.
It is the distraction.
Every time they bring up the Trump kids, Trump brings up Hunter. That is the distraction.
Trump would 100% rather have that conversation than one about health care or a bunch of other topics because, again, his supporters already know he's a crook and have various reasons to not care. Any of his supporters who don't know this are obviously beyond hope. Trump's best scenario is to make this election about his character, especially against Biden.
What? You think Trump is cleaning up corruption? And someone who obeys the law is by definition not a crook. It's a mistake to conflate sleazy but permitted conduct with outright crime. That rapidly becomes the "everybody does it" rationalization. It's just senseless to equate Hunter Biden, a lawyer himself, taking a seat on a corporate board for a couple years with the lifetime corruption, tax evasion and fraud perpetrated by Trump, his father and his children.
Suddenly
No Punting
"Drain the swamp."
"Offered" and "delivered" are two different words with different meanings.
Again, there are people that see Trump being a crook as less offensive than the kinds of entrenched technically legal corruption that the Clintons and Bidens are into.
You say it is a mistake to conflate the two. I think it is reasonable to analogize it to the criminal justice system. No individual criminal is as dangerous as the unchecked power of the state law enforcement apparatus. This is why we have rules governing search and seizure, arrest, the right to counsel, and via the exclusionary rule sometimes allow horrible people to go free because of state misconduct.
Sure, Trump is up to that systematic corruption as well, but that is now what Bloomberg and the boys are going to concentrate on for obvious reasons.
Also, it isn't up to me to conflate the two. The false equivalence is in the eye of the beholder, and the amplifying the Biden story is good enough to wash out every brutal thing Trump did.