As someone who lived in NYC during the 12 years of Mayor Bloomberg, let me say...

[DanTex]

10. People tend to think the "average Democrat" is just like them.

A lot of Democrats still see Bush's policies, including the Iraq War, as causing a lot of the problems we have today. A lot of Democrats don't like Bloomberg's austerity policies, they aren't in favor of the kinds of cuts to social programs that Bloomberg has favored his entire career. A lot of Democrats don't find it credible that he stood behind stop and frisk right up until he decided to run for president as a Democrat.

It's also not true that "New York Democrats" elected him three times. What New York Democrats did three times is run an opponent against him. Most Dem voters in NYC didn't vote for him, he put together a coalition of moderate Dem voters and Republicans/Independents. The most Democratic borough in NYC, the Bronx, voted against him every time. The second most, Brooklyn, only voted for him in 2005.

What has an impact on his success as a Presidential candidate is that he has $50 billion. Period. It's certainly not that his policies are anywhere near the mainstream of the Democratic electorate. I mean, Bloomberg is in favor of cutting Social Security and he doesn't even pretend otherwise. The reason he ran as a Republican in NYC is that he couldn't have won a Democratic Primary. If he wasn't spending more money than the rest of the field combined, he'd have no chance at the presidential primary either.

Wealthy white bankers who are pro-choice loved him. That's hardly an "average Democrat."