re: #89 Belafon

Yup. 2 states have voted/caucused.

And so far Buttigieg is the frontrunner by the metrics that count: delegates.

Yet who’s being treated as the frontrunner? Bernie. Weird.

Who’s being treated as the rising candidate? Bloomberg, who’s buying his way into the debates with a massive ad buy. Money talks. Bloomberg is the very kind of billionaire that the GOP positioned Trump as - “self made” business genius. In this case, Bloomberg is actually a self made business guru who is worth something like 20-30 times what Trump is worth (and Trump inherited that fortune). Bloomberg also has a very public record, and has won elected office before. Running NYC is a higher profile position than most and he represented more people and a more diverse population in NYC than in 37 of the 50 states (8.1 million).

Of course, that comes with all the scandals and problems - stop and frisk, his comments about policing, race, and other assorted views. All of that should be vetted and rightfully so.

But there’s a reason that he’s rising in the polls - he’s also willing to attack Trump early and often, and defeating Trump should be job 1. Attacking other candidates is secondary but in a crowded field, the only way to distinguish in a crowded field is to go after others, especially when the differences in policies are granular and don’t really matter when you go into a general election and still face a Senate that is GOP controlled.

Problems to address:
1. win the WH
1a. overcome media messaging (and this applies to everything from how women in the race are represented to ignoring Bernie’s health issues to minorities and who would best protect their rights while media plays their narrative games, etc.)
2. retake the Senate
3. expand control in House

Bloomberg has already said that if he doesn’t win the nomination, he’d still help Democrats downrace and WH runs. That’s what we need. We need the ad buys to help defeat Trump and the GOP. He gets that. And that’s why his support keeps growing.