quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:
Bloomberg is right that if they don't coalesce around one Not-Bernie that Bernie will win but his entry doesn't save them, it only further divides them.

I think he thinks he'll come on so overwhelmingly strong the others will see the futility of their campaigns and give up.

Apparently what happened during the 2016 GOP Presidential primary race completely escaped his attention

quote:

Originally posted by Expat:

quote:

Originally posted by kimber1911:
In my opinion Mayor Pete performed the best.
Smooth talker without saying anything.

Exactly like Obama. Eloquent but empty.

You have to admit, they are both articulate and bright and clean and nice-looking guys.

A tweet from Benny Johnson, a Republican pundit I follow sums up last night:

quote:

Wow.

Bloomberg is a stuttering, weak-kneed, mumbling, shaking nervous mess *against* this clown-car of a Dem field.

Can you even *imagine* what the eventual Bloomberg/Trump debates would be like?

They would be slaughterhouse.
It would be abuse.
Cruel an unusual.
DNC is screwed

https://twitter.com/bennyjohns.../1230321010756505603

Didn't watch the debate, only saw local news coverage. Looked more like a group of 10 year olds arguing about who was more cool than a political debate.

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:

Bloomberg had been zooming up in the polls. This debate may hurt him big time.

This was his Mueller moment. These Dems thought he was their next big hope until he got up there last night and looked weak and feeble.

I wonder how many Dems who donated to him in the last week or two and were getting all excited about him taking on Trump were doing this last night:

Watching it now. Man, right from the start, it looks like a prison riot. The shivs are out and it's every man for himself, but they all want Bloomberg 86'ed.

Bloomberg was the turkey at a turkey shoot during Democratic debate

In the months before he decided to run for president, Michael Bloomberg swore he wouldn’t take the plunge. Over and over, he told friends there was no place for him in the Democratic Party.

He might have been right, to judge from the beating he took in Las Vegas. His first debate was the night he dreaded and while his race for the nomination isn’t DOA, the road to victory just got a lot tougher.

His record and notorious past comments were easy pickings, and his rivals repeatedly aimed their fire at his billions, turning his wealth into a crime against humanity. Sometimes they misfired, but mostly they struck gold with their broadsides.

The audience ate it up, and Bloomy must have felt like the turkey in a turkey shoot.

The most devastating blow was Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s demand that he release women from the nondisclosure agreements they signed after complaining about sexual harassment or other issues at his Wall Street firm. Usually self-assured to the point of cockiness, Bloomy looked like a deer in the headlights, frozen with a mix of indecision and embarrassment.

Eventually he said no, he would not release the women and let them talk, but by then he had lost the argument. Joe Biden then piled on for good measure.

That’s not to suggest Bloomberg is completely finished. The heart of his case — that having Sanders as the nominee will hand Donald Trump four more years — cannot be dismissed and will still ring true for a lot of Democrats.

And Bloomberg will still keep using his money to paper voters in the Super Tuesday states with wall-to-wall television ads. Indeed, during the debate, his team was shadowing the topics by sending out statements on positions that tried to amplify or clarify things he said. Missives on stop-and-frisk, gender equality and the environment were among the handful I received during the debate.

Bloomberg’s best moment came in a showdown with Sanders, calling the Vermont senator’s attacks on the American system “ridiculous” and declaring that the entire conversation would be the best argument for re-electing Trump.

“We’re not going to throw out capitalism,” Bloomberg said sharply. “We tried that. It was called communism.”

When Sanders shot back that he was talking Democratic socialism, Bloom drew blood by saying Sanders is “the best known socialist in the country and happens to be a millionaire with three houses.”

Exchanges like that made the two hours fly by. With Sanders the clear front-runner, most of the others came with the same goal — to be the lone alternative, and then defeat Sanders by painting him as too far left to win the general election.

One result was the classic shootout in a lifeboat, with everybody sniping at somebody. Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar went at each other all night, as did Buttigieg and Sanders, and Warren went after Buttigieg and Klobuchar. At the end, none of them really stood out enough to change the basic contours of the race.

https://nypost.com/2020/02/20/...atic-debate-goodwin/

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:


When Sanders shot back that he was talking Democratic socialism, Bloom drew blood by saying Sanders is “the best known socialist in the country and happens to be a millionaire with three houses.”

Yeah...about how Comrade Bernie lamely tried to say something like "well everyone up here has a summer cabin, and that's what this is!"

You lying, Communist-sympathizing sack of shit!:

quote:

Zack Stanton
@zackstanton

FWIW, Bernie's summer home in Vermont isn't a little cabin: It is a ~$600k house with 500 feet of beachfront on Lake Champlain.

The Secret of Bernie’s Millions

Klobuchar couldn't get off stage fast enough. Minnesota Nice didn't work out for her very well.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
Watching it now. Man, right from the start, it looks like a prison riot. The shivs are out and it's every man for himself, but they all want Bloomberg 86'ed.

He brought his wallet to a knife fight.

(Yes, stolen. )

quote:

Originally posted by Pyker:
Klobuchar couldn't get off stage fast enough. Minnesota Nice didn't work out for her very well.

Oh, yes--I noticed that too. She didn't make eye contact with Buttigieg while he sheepishly watched her walk around him.

He will probably come to the next debate in this suit...you know to impress the lower classes...

The Secret of Bernie’s Millions

That was most informative, I read the entire article. I can emphasize with some of what he is saying, or used to say before he became a millionaire.

This paragraph shows how the current Bernie and his wife work:

"In 2004, Jane Sanders was hired as the president of Burlington College, a small, middling liberal arts school. Making a six-figure salary, she saw her tenure end in acrimony after her decision to pursue a campus expansion by making a $10 million land purchase crippled the institution. She resigned in 2014 and took with her a $200,000 severance package some called a golden parachute. In 2016, the debt-beset college closed for good, felled by “an inexperienced president,” in the barbed words of Jane Sanders’ successor."

I watched almost all of it last night and have seen a coupe of clips today to fill me in on the part I missed.

In my mind, Warren had the best showing of those on stage, with Buttigieg a distant second, but that isn’t saying much and Trump was the ultimate beneficiary of their debacle, ah, debate. BS was quite red-faced part of the time and I wondered if he was going to have another heart attack on the stage. Bloomie looked like he wanted to have one just to get offstage, Biden was as uninspiring as ever, and Klobuchar acted like the annoying little sister jumping up and down saying “Don’t forget about me!”

None of them appear to me to have a reasonable chance of beating President Trump, which makes me wonder if the Democrat power brokers will do everything in their power to deny Sanders and try to push for a dark horse at the convention. That would tick off the Bernie bots but could attract the moderate Democrats...if there are any of them left.

^^ Good assessment, StarTraveler!
I agree, Warren had the best showing of those on stage, but still appears desperate. It's like she has nothing to lose so she takes one last stab with all she's got.
Biden was largely ignored by the rest which is the best demonstration to date that they think he's done. It's not worth the energy to attack him.