Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), in a New Hampshire interview with Fox News, said 2020 Democrat presidential candidate, media mogul, and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg “has decided to use all of his $55 billion — not to buy a yacht, not to buy a fancy car, but to buy the United States.”
This is an interesting comment coming from the self-proclaimed socialist, who owns three homes.
It seems a dichotomy — but today, not really.
When Dems play the class card, it comes with a handicap, as so many of them are wealthy themselves.
They’re rich and they’re socialist.
In the inverted logic of D.C., it makes sense.
The list is long — and it includes the Roosevelts, the Rockefellers, the Kennedys, and the Warners. These are all families active for generations in Democratic politics who claim to represent the poorest Americans.
Yet they live lifestyles of opulence the poorest Americans cannot begin to fathom. One could recently add the Clintons, the Bidens, and the Obamas to that list.
Related: Michael Bloomberg, Slamming Trump, Officially Enters 2020 Race
They also turn a blind eye on the effect of high taxes on average, hardworking Americans. If those individuals are taxed at a high rate, their remaining income is still astronomical.
But if a middle class or working family is taxed at a high rate, the effect on that family’s bottom line can be catastrophic.
For his part, Bloomberg responded to Sanders by saying he’s “been very successful and I’ve used all of it to give back to help America.”
Ah, but apparently not quite all of it — as Bloomberg owns numerous residences, an investment portfolio in the billions, and is self-funding his own presidential campaign into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Bloomberg has just begun an over $30 million ad buy in media markets across the country and is focusing on the primary battles after Iowa and New Hampshire.
His strategy is the political equivalent of the “rope-a-dope” manuever made famous by champion boxer Muhammad Ali.
Bloomberg plans to let the present top-tier candidates fight it out among themselves in February in Iowa and New Hampshire. He’ll take some hard punches — but the other candidates will be too busy fighting each other to do him much harm.
Then, after they are tired and overexposed — and have less cash on hand for the rest of the fight — Bloomberg will swoop in, fresh and filled with cash.
He’ll then fight it out on Super Tuesday (March 3, 2020) and the rest of the primaries.
This, of course, presupposes that one of those early candidates doesn’t pick up such a commanding lead that by Super Tuesday, Bloomberg is a latecomer and an afterthought.
However, with $55 billion in the bank and an expressed willingness to use a lot of it to gain the White House, Bloomberg is likely to be reckoned with one way or another.
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