Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that he’s dropping out of the race for the 2020 Democratic Presidential nomination after a poor Super Tuesday showing that netted him one delegate from American Somoa, located 6,000 miles from the American mainland. He immediately pledged to support former Vice President Joe Biden and do everything he can do to help elect Biden and defeat Donald Trump in the November Presidential election.
Here’s part of his statement published on his campaign website:
” Three months ago, I entered the race for President to defeat Donald Trump. Today, I am leaving the race for the same reason: to defeat Donald Trump – because it is clear to me that staying in would make achieving that goal more difficult.
I’m a believer in using data to inform decisions. After yesterday’s results, the delegate math has become virtually impossible – and a viable path to the nomination no longer exists. But I remain clear-eyed about my overriding objective: victory in November. Not for me, but for our country. And so while I will not be the nominee, I will not walk away from the most important political fight of my life.
I’ve always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it. After yesterday’s vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden.
I’ve known Joe for a very long time. I know his decency, his honesty, and his commitment to the issues that are so important to our country – including gun safety, health care, climate change, and good jobs.
I’ve had the chance to work with Joe on those issues over the years, and Joe has fought for working people his whole life. Today I am glad to endorse him – and I will work to make him the next President of the United States.”
And, as a report in the Washington Post confirms, Bloomberg is not going away:
” Bloomberg will put his resources ‘in the broadest way possible behind Joe Biden’s candidacy,’ Tim O’Brien, a senior adviser to the Bloomberg campaign, said Wednesday. ‘We have long-term leases and long-term contracts with the team and the intention was always to put this big machine we have built behind whoever the nominee is.'”
Bloomberg spent a half-billion dollars on his campaign, and while some may point to the fact he only got one delegate, under performed in his televised debates, and that his inability to get more votes shows the limits of money in politics, he actually had a big impact:
(1) During much of the primary season when the Democrats seemed intent on creating an infinitely effective circular firing squad his slew of ads took on Donald Trump and raised issues about Trump that bothered moderate Republicans as well as Democrats and independents.
(2) His ads raised an issue that has simmered for a long time: the behavior of so-called “Bernie Bros” on the Internet and off the internet. While this behavior was not indicative of all Sanders supporters there was enough of it for it to have have become a concern. This led some to raise the question of whether these Sanders supporters were to the left what some Trump’s supporters are to the right.
(3) When Sanders indicated he’d rather lose than accept billionaire Bloomberg’s financial support in the campaign it reinforced fears among some Democrats who want Bloomberg to keep the checks flowing so their party can keep the House, have a shot at the Senate and, not incidentally, use all $$$ resources possible to meet Trump’s whoppingly big bucks political war chest.
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photo credit: Gage Skidmore Michael Bloomberg via photopin (license)
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.