This isn't going to be a feel-good movie from the 1980s

[Mike 03]

You know the one: Richard Gere plays a cynical, highly sought-after political consultant. The greatest ever. Few candidates can afford his services, but if you can, you win. Guaranteed. In the end, Richard Gere has a crisis of conscience and gives heartfelt advice to a young idealist, a penniless grass-roots candidate, urging him to reveal his soul humbly in a climactic speech and let the voters decide.

From Roger Ebert’s review:

Gere implores the man to forget all strategy and simply tell the truth, and there are echoes here of the famous moment in "Network" when the anchorman asks his viewers to shout out that they're fed up to here, and they aren't going to take it anymore. Unfortunately, the very idealism of the scene in "Power" is undermined by the movie's cool professionalism: We think we've learned enough about the campaign business to know that Gere's strategy won't work.

I don’t remember if the candidate wins or not.

My DU icon for months was Warren. I’ve been saying my heart is with her (my brain is with Biden, and my fascination is with Bloomberg), but last night I heard her through fresh ears. She was disparaging Bloomberg and Steyer, as you would expect, rejecting the role of big money, speaking from the heart in that irresistible way that makes you love her, and calling for a tsunami of grass roots support, appealing to “the little guy.”

It sincerely is touching. She means every word. It’s one of a dozen reasons I’ve been drawn to her.

Over the next nine months Donald Trump will spend at least a billion dollars to recapture the White House. Worse, he’s got the help of the Department of Justice, State Department, hundreds of judges who will rule in his favor on any election-related issue, and the probable help of hostile foreign countries. He will lie, he will cheat, he will destroy the lives of decent people and no one will stop him. He will burn it all down.

Below are paraphrases of statements by two candidates given over the last 24 hours:

#1. “We are on a wartime footing with an incompetent, dangerous and corrupt president. We’ll spend at least a billion dollars, and we’ve hired two thousand five hundred soldiers in this fight, and are looking at hiring more, and we’re opening six new offices this week in Texas, sending 900 more people to California, and doubling our spending on advertising. We know what we have to do; let’s just get it done.”

#2 “We appeal to the Little Guy, we need to inspire a grassroots movement, Americans giving five dollars here, ten dollars there, Americans need to rise up, and say 'We reject this president' and say ‘No’ to big money, we say ‘No’ to millionaires and billionaires…”

This is a conundrum. Who doesn’t want Warren’s vision? Who doesn’t want to kick Trump’s ass in November?

I will admit this: Statement #1 makes me want to fight like my life and nation are in existential peril and, this morning at least, Statement #2 makes me want to go back to bed and resign myself to failure in November.

At the very, very least, I would plead with Elizabeth Warren (or any other candidate, for that matter) not to be so short sighted in her wholesale rejection of the enormous assistance Bloomberg can bring to bear on our ultimate objective.

Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

[blm]

1. Ask Jamie Dimon how gentle Warren is. Ask Wells Fargo if Warren

knows how to throw down.

Warren is an anticorruption fighter. For the corrupt she is the opposition you do not want to face.

You are viewing her through the lens of a democratic primary. Warren has never had to run against fellow Democrats and really doesn’t want to go assassin on them. That doesn’t mean she can’t do it.

Warren has 100 offices organized in 31 states already. She planned ahead.

BTW, Bloomberg said he would throw his finances behind the Dem nominee and party if he doesn’t prevail. They’ll work it out. I think Bloomberg knows Warren can pinpoint the corruption in the financial powermongers who corrupt government and admires Warren’s vision; and Warren likely admires that he made his money without cheating everyone else out of theirs.

See:Wells Fargo.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/10/4/16413820/elizabeth-warren-wells-fargo

ELIZABETH WARREN TAKES A 9-IRON TO WELLS FARGO C.E.O. ON HIS WAY OUT THE DOOR
“Getting fired shouldn’t be the end of the story for Tim Sloan . . . he should be put in jail.”

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/03/elizabeth-warren-takes-9-iron-to-wells-fargo-ceo-tim-sloan-on-his-way-out-the-door

[KPN]

2. +1111!