BUYING DEMOCRACY: Mike Bloomberg Plans to Double Ad Budget Following Iowa Caucus Disaster
Shane Trejo
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Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg is doubling the advertising budget for his presidential campaign, sensing a path for him to buy the Democrat presidential nomination amidst the chaos of the Iowa caucus disaster that still has not yielded a definitive winner.
The fake news media is already declaring that Bloomberg has “emerged triumphant from the chaotic Iowa caucuses before the results were even reported — and he never even set foot in the state.”
Politico reporters Sally Goldenberg and Christopher Cadelago surmised that Bloomberg “couldn’t have asked for a better outcome in his unconventional bid to become the nominee of a party he only re-joined in 2018.”
“Yesterday I hear something happened in Iowa. Or didn’t happen. I don’t know which,” Bloomberg told a Detroit audience on Tuesday afternoon.
Bloomberg’s campaign announced on Tuesday that they intend to double the size of their national campaign of advertisements, which already has cost an astronomical $315 million. His campaign, which already employs 2,100 field staff, will be growing exponentially as well.
“Things are going well. That’s when you want to put more money in,” Bloomberg said to Politico on Tuesday.
He intends to focus mainly on Trump rather than pick on one Democrat running for president, believing he is the man with the right pedigree to defeat the president in a head-to-head matchup.
“I’ve said the same thing about all of them so I don’t want to just pick on one,” Bloomberg said, looking ahead of internecine conflicts with his Democrat competitors. “I don’t think they’re tough enough to go against Trump.”
The mess at the Iowa caucus has also helped Bloomberg’s attacks on the state’s protected status. They want Iowa replaced with a battleground state with a more urban population so the nomination process can be more easily controlled.
“Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t really feel like a primary should be a board game,” Bloomberg campaign manager Kevin Sheekey said to NBC’s Chuck Todd. “I’ve had better luck having my nephew explain Minecraft to me than to understand what’s going on in Iowa tonight.”
Political analysts are saying that Bloomberg’s gamble to completely ignore Iowa has paid off, and, paired with former Vice President Joe Biden’s likely dismal showing in the state, will boost his well-funded campaign aimed at moderates.
“They made a calculation that Iowa wouldn’t be as determinative or impactful as past nominating fights and turns out they were right beyond Sheekey’s wildest dreams,” said Neal Kwatra, a New York-based politican operative not affiliated with any presidential campaign. “Now instead of a week of earned media momentum, we are gonna have a week of Democrats in dysfunction.”
He added, “And the technocratic billionaire looking all competent and capable waiting in the wings looks even more appealing to skittish and restive Democrats.”
There’s only one problem for Bloomberg standing in the way of the billionaire buying the Democrat presidential nomination: the radical insurgency that has coalesced around Bernie Sanders. Sanders’ hardcore and growing contingent of socialists in the Democrat Party will never likely vote for Bloomberg, even if it means putting Trump back into office.
“We should be ashamed of that, as Americans, as people that believe in democracy, that the oligarchs—if you have more money, you can buy your way,” said Nina Turner, a national co-chair of the Bernie Sanders campaign during a recent MSNBC appearance. She refused to back down from her statement.
“He is” an oligarch, Turner said when she was challenged by establishment Democrats. “He skipped Iowa. Iowans should be insulted. Buying his way into this race, period. The DNC changed the rules. They didn’t change it for Senator Harris. They wouldn’t change it for Senator Booker. They didn’t change it for Secretary Castro.”
Bloomberg may learn before the presidential race is over that his money can only take him so far.
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