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Bloomberg 2020 (2 Viewers)

I mean I would vote for him in the general against Trump, but I think there are other candidates I would vote for over him in the primary.  But I guess I will wait and see.

 
He’s 10000000x more fiscally responsible than the disaster we have brewing, can’t be bought, and generally cares about the population.

While I don’t agree with all his positions, sadly I can’t ask for more from a politician.

 
SaintsInDome2006 said:
Thank heavens a billionaire with all the answers.
An old white male billionaire centrist who loves free trade and tax breaks for corporations, who first ran for public office as a Republican.The left is gonna turn out in droves for that! 

Can't imagine this story about him officiating Rudy Giuliani's wedding- where the rich powerful dooshbags in attendance took advantage of a loophole in his smoking ban to puff on cigars on government property- coming back to haunt him, either.

 
Given his age (78 at inauguration), his physical and cognitive health would need to be seriously vetted.  Even some genetic testing, such as APOE to determine his risk for Alzheimer's disease. 

 
An old white male billionaire centrist who loves free trade and tax breaks for corporations, who first ran for public office as a Republican.The left is gonna turn out in droves for that! 

Can't imagine this story about him officiating Rudy Giuliani's wedding- where the rich powerful dooshbags in attendance took advantage of a loophole in his smoking ban to puff on cigars on government property- coming back to haunt him, either.
[placeholder] November 2020 comments [/placeholder]

If you think that story will be his undoing, I've got a bridge to sell you. 

 
I'd be cool with him but he's 76 years old as of today.  

I'd much rather see a younger Democrat/Independent lead this country.

 
Love him. But not if he divides the vote against Trump. 
He's smart enough to realize he can't win as an Independent. 

I'd be cool with him but he's 76 years old as of today.  

I'd much rather see a younger Democrat/Independent lead this country.
Really wanted him to run in 2016. He didn't want Trump to win either, but thought that running as an Independent would take Hillary voters away and thus put Trump into the WH - the logic made sense at the time. 

 
An old white male billionaire centrist who loves free trade and tax breaks for corporations, who first ran for public office as a Republican.The left is gonna turn out in droves for that!
I know I speak for the rest of the progressive wing of the party when I say we will turn out in droves for Bloomberg!  I've been saying for years that the Democrats need to be more corporate-friendly.

 
Which views of his are on the conservative side?
He really is a centrist, why I like him so much. Social issues he is not very much a conservative, hence winning mayor of NYC. 

Fiscally, he is conservative, he'll certainly balance our budget, which to me is a top priority. Our country won't go bankrupt in 30 years if he is elected. 

 
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Fiscally, he is conservative, he'll certainly balance our budget, which to me is a top priority. Our country won't go bankrupt in 30 years if he is elected. 
I'm curious how you'd think he'd go about this.  Raise taxes?  And if so, on who?  Make massive spending cuts in which areas?

Balancing the budget within a short time period seems like a disaster in the making.

 
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I'm curious how you'd think he'd go about this.  Raise taxes?  And if so, on who?  Make massive spending cuts in which areas?

Balancing the budget within a short time period seems like a disaster in the making.
Honestly, I have no clue how he'll do it and I honestly don't care, as long as someone does it. I think it will be fair and it is absolutely an issue that needs to be addressed, I don't think anyone else will address it. 

I agree, balancing the budget will bring short term pain, no getting around it. However, ignoring it really continues us down a path to a real disaster. 

 
Honestly, I have no clue how he'll do it and I honestly don't care, as long as someone does it. I think it will be fair and it is absolutely an issue that needs to be addressed, I don't think anyone else will address it. 

I agree, balancing the budget will bring short term pain, no getting around it. However, ignoring it really continues us down a path to a real disaster. 
He won’t balance the budget. You can’t cut spending or raise taxes enough to do it without creating disaster. Not gonna happen. 

What Bloomberg would do, IMO, is promote free trade, infrastructure, and new energy all as means to expand the economy- shrinking the debt by increasing wealth. 

 
He won’t balance the budget. You can’t cut spending or raise taxes enough to do it without creating disaster. Not gonna happen. 

What Bloomberg would do, IMO, is promote free trade, infrastructure, and new energy all as means to expand the economy- shrinking the debt by increasing wealth. 
Well, I'll just wait for him to address the issue and not speculate, he's a little smarter than you (and me). He handed over a fiscally responsible NYC to De Blasio shortly after the biggest financial crisis in 80 years, I have faith. 

Furthermore, you can't continue to run deficits in the trillions annually in perpetuity without running into an unmitigated disaster. I think he is the only person who can & will address this. 

 
Honestly, I have no clue how he'll do it and I honestly don't care, as long as someone does it. I think it will be fair and it is absolutely an issue that needs to be addressed, I don't think anyone else will address it. 

I agree, balancing the budget will bring short term pain, no getting around it. However, ignoring it really continues us down a path to a real disaster. 
Based on your posts in other threads I believe you would have a huge problem if he raised your taxes to balance the budget. 

 
I hate that everyone can only analyze politics as a pundit, so I'll give my personal view of Bloomberg before I discuss his chances:

My time in NYC almost completely overlaps with his time as mayor. I did not vote for him the first time around, because I was so sick of hearing the whole "We just need to run government like a business" schtick, but I was forced to admit that he proved to be a much better manager than I expected (and also much better than most CEOs-turned-politicians). He really did hire good people, and in the wake of Rudy, who saw dramatic reductions in crime while also inflaming racial tensions, it was nice to see someone prove that you could have the former without the latter (for the most part; more on that in a second). I also liked that he thought big -- even if the West Side stadium and 2020 Olympic bids may not have been the best ideas, I liked that he had a long-term vision. In the meantime, he implemented a number of small quality-of-life measures that made living in the city more enjoyable, like increased bike lanes, larger pedestrian areas around Times Square and elsewhere, and Citibike.

The negative: I really hated his move to abolish term limits in order to give himself a third term, then immediately supporting a referendum to reimpose them after he had won. That was such a big issue for me that, after voting to re-elect him in '05, I refused to do it again in '09 (although I viewed his opponent as a hack and only voted for him because I assumed he had no chance of winning; as it turned out, a lot of people felt the same way I did and Bloomberg nearly lost). Also, while he was a million times better than Rudy on race relations, he was strangely pig-headed about continuing stop-and-frisk. Similarly, the fact that he was so close to Wall Street bothered me a little, but his stubborn refusal to see how things had changed after '08 bothered me much more, and belied his pragmatic image.

As for how all of this would translate to the White House, I'm a little skeptical. The NYC Mayor is an incredibly powerful role, one that suited Bloomberg's personality (and Rudy's too, for that matter). Being president requires a lot more consensus building, and I'm not sure I ever really saw that in him (then again, I was wrong about him the first time, so who knows?) He is also a little too moderate for my taste, particularly on economic issues. But he's an interesting voice to add to the mix, and I hope he runs.

All that said, putting my pundit hat back on, he has zero chance of winning the Democratic nomination. Think of it this way: the energy driving the Democratic base right now mostly comes from four groups: young people, women, African Americans and Sanders/Warren economic populists. The first group would have no particular reason to love him (especially given his age). The second two would at best, view him with a healthy dose of skepticism (I already discussed stop-and-frisk, but check out his recent tone-deaf comments on #MeToo). And the last group absolutely hates him. I also think the media tends to overstate the chances of tri-state area politicians as well as the popularity of socially liberal/fiscally conservative views (if anything, it's the opposite that is more popular, which Trump cleverly tapped into.)

 
He really is a centrist, why I like him so much. Social issues he is not very much a conservative, hence winning mayor of NYC. 

Fiscally, he is conservative, he'll certainly balance our budget, which to me is a top priority. Our country won't go bankrupt in 30 years if he is elected. 
When we went over $1 Trillion debt back in the 80's people said the same thing. It's 30 years later. Get it? Debt doesn't matter. The national debt may well be 100 T within 30 years regardless of who is in office because it doesn't matter.

When needed, they will fire up the $1T coin and resolve it. Obama was going to do it. One of the ideas floated, Obama said, was having the US Treasury mint a coin worth $1 trillion to pay off a good portion of the debt.  Like magic.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kotlikoff/2013/01/19/the-treasury-has-already-minted-two-trillion-dollar-coins/#74ffc4d76994

 
I hate that everyone can only analyze politics as a pundit, so I'll give my personal view of Bloomberg before I discuss his chances:
Snipping this post just for length but agree with nearly all of it. 

Bloomberg had an opening to run, particularly this last election cycle. But at this point missed his chance. The political environment, likely candidates, and his age all weigh too heavily against him.

 
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The negative: I really hated his move to abolish term limits in order to give himself a third term, then immediately supporting a referendum to reimpose them after he had won.
This turned me most off about him.  Was really not a fan after he did this.

 
Snipping this post just for length but agree with nearly all of it. 

Bloomberg had an opening to run, particularly this last election cycle. But at this point missed his chance. The political environment, likely candidates, and his age all weigh too heavily against him.
I think if Bernie had won the nomination he would have run as an independent (and I would have at least considered voting for him). But once Hillary won, he knew there wasn't enough space for him in the center, and all he would accomplish would be to throw the election to Trump.

I'll give him credit for this: If he does in fact run in the Democratic primary, he will at least be taking on his critics directly. In NYC he joined the GOP just to get the nomination, then made a big deal of quitting the party once it could no longer do him any good.

 
Why wouldn't he run as an Independent?  No way in hell Michael Bloomberg gets the Democrat nomination.  
Same reason he didn't in '16: because he knows it would throw the election to Trump.

Agree with you on his chances in a Democratic primary, though.

 

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