It's Time to Start Taking Mike Bloomberg Seriously [View all]

[left-of-center2012]

Immediately after Michael Bloomberg announced his entry into the presidential race, the dual charges rang out: The former New York City mayor is trying to buy the election. And the former New York City mayor appeals to no one.

Neither of these assumptions is accurate. Bloomberg isn’t trying to buy an election. He’s trying to buy your attention. And it appears he’s having some success. Bloomberg has spent $270 million of his own money on ads thus far, and will be shelling out $11 million on a Super Bowl ad to air Sunday night. He currently finds himself as high as fourth place in recent national polls having appeared in zero debates, and having entered the race months or in some cases years (R.I.P. Delaney 2020) after some Democrats he’s already outpacing.

Bloomberg’s strategy to essentially sit out the states that vote before Super Tuesday has been criticized as not playing by the same rules as all the other candidates. But the tradition of letting a few nonrepresentative states play early kingmaker has also come under widespread and warranted criticism this cycle. Likely by happenstance, Bloomberg is actually in a position to circumvent the old, unfair rulebook.

Given this backdrop, Bloomberg’s record, and the failure of Democrats to coalesce under one moderate alternative to the more progressive candidates in the Democratic field, a Bloomberg candidacy should not be considered a joke, and Bloomberg’s qualifications should not be summarily dismissed. Vote for him or don’t. But the fact that the public learns of Bloomberg’s accomplishments because Bloomberg paid his own money to inform them might not be as disqualifying to actual voters as the other candidates and much of the media seem to think it is.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/01/mike-bloomberg-president-2020.html