Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[lineygoblue]

The Clinton election machine has not even gone into full swing yet. They will bury Bernie Sanders, and then the gloves will come off against the Republican nominee. They believe Hillary is entitled to be President. They're not going to be denied.

[Ghengis Jon]

Is this the worst presidential field of all time?

A resounding YES.

[Ghengis Jon]

If Bloomberg jumps in, is it too late to draft someone like Jon Huntsman for the Repubs?

[hack]

I've no idea what to think about Bloomberg. On the one hand, what a capable administrator and a sensible person he was as mayor of New York. On the other, his fortunes are directly tied to the level of employment in the financial-services sector. He's directly incentivized to encourage that merry-go-round to get even bigger, at the expense of redirecting wealth into producing things other than paper wealth.

Whilst I believe that the system requires a major attack on corruption before anything else, and Bloomberg would not be that, I don't think we're ready for that yet. Bloomberg is probably not a bad guy to have in the chair until people are truly ready for what it would take to eject entrenched interests, and for Congress to see that writing on the wall as well.

[Mike]

I think Bloomberg's primary interest in the race is stopping Trump. He would probably siphon votes from the Donald more than any other candidate. It's far too late to enter the race and win the nomination but he could affect the outcome of those already entrenched in their campaigns.

[hack]

Skeptical that the mass of would-be Trump voters are eager to vote for New York city's former mayor who tried to limit consumption of pop and favors gun control. He may be into stopping Trump, but I think he's more worried about Sanders. Sanders would be a full assault on Bloomberg's revenue stream, which is based on the number of Bloomberg terminals sitting on desks. If Sanders succeeds in reducing financial engineering he's shrinking Bloomberg's customer base. I think Bloomberg would be delighted with Hillary.

[froot loops]

Bloomberg would be a pure vanity campaign that would go nowhere.

[UMStan White]

Oh you mean like Ralph Nader? It doesn't have to go far to affect the final outcome.

[Mike]

Oh you mean like Ralph Nader? It doesn't have to go far to affect the final outcome.

Exactly.

[WM Wolverine]

Sanders and Trump as the top candidates show how amazingly divided this country's political parties are.

[Hannibal]

Bloomberg wouldn't siphon votes from Trump. He would take more from Clinton or Sanders. He is a Liberal nanny-statist whereas Trump's support is mostly coming right now from frustrated right wing ideologues who would overwhelmingly support a traditional Conservative Republican if he could articulate what Trump says with any credibility. I also expect his trade protectionism rhetoric to get lots of Dem crossover votes. His "I'm going to make everyone better off by cutting down waste and making everyone richer" message has broad appeal too.

[Mike]

Sanders and Trump as the top candidates show how amazingly divided this country's political parties are.

Sanders is far from the leading candidate.

[Mike]

Is Bloomberg entertaining a 3rd party run or as a Republican?

[froot loops]

Oh you mean like Ralph Nader? It doesn't have to go far to affect the final outcome.

Oh no, it would be nothing like Ralph Nader. Nader was a vanity campaign with a natural constituency. That constituency was guaranteed to only take votes from Gore. Nader got nearly 3 percent of the national vote, it was a true grass roots campaign. Bloomberg is a technocrat nobody is clamoring for. Nader drew huge rallies all over and if Bloomberg was outside of New York he couldn't fill a high school auditorium.

[hack]

Third party, if I'm not mistaken. He is another one of those lifelong Democrats who switched allegiances when seeking public office.