Michael Bloomberg 2020 campaign megathread

[Tintrlvr]

Post Iowa and I can see a path for Bloomberg. Black and Latino Democratic primary voters are not as hostile to him as the media would think...... and he’s been taking Trump head on unapologetically......

Wouldn't he have to win something on Super Tuesday? If he somehow gets a state and Biden or Buttigieg do poorly, than I can see him getting momentum as a moderate candidate, but otherwise I really doubt it.

Why do you think he can't/won't win states on Super Tuesday?

[GeneralMacArthur]

Everyone seems to think they can just say "Stop And Frisk" and black+hispanic voters will instantly hate Bloomberg.

Mike Bloomberg had a 55-37 approval split among blacks and 66-26 among hispanics in the most recent NYC polling I could find:  https://poll.qu.edu/new-york-city/release-detail?ReleaseID=1376

Even those who didn't like him personally thought he did a good job as mayor.  Those numbers both rise to the high 60s when asked that question.

Same for women and the Bloomberg Quote Book story that was already hashed out in the NYC elections.  NYC women approved of Bloomberg personally by 63-30.

It will be really difficult to characterize Bloomberg or drown him in negative advertising.  He is wealthy enough to own the airwaves and has a skilled enough team to come up with the correct response to any attempt.  Maybe you can get away with it on Twitter or social media, but those audiences were always going to be extremely hostile to any non-Sanders candidate anyway.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

https://twitter.com/theintercept/status/1225592540461772800

[GeneralMacArthur]

https://twitter.com/theintercept/status/1225592540461772800

A handful of these seem like actual plagiarizing.  Most of them are obviously meant to be direct quotes, or are "plagiarized" from previous Bloomberg sources like his PlaNYC.

That said, none of them are actual policies, it's all just statistics and background stuff.

[Starry Eyed Jagaloon]

https://twitter.com/theintercept/status/1225592540461772800

A handful of these seem like actual plagiarizing.  Most of them are obviously meant to be direct quotes, or are "plagiarized" from previous Bloomberg sources like his PlaNYC.

That said, none of them are actual policies, it's all just statistics and background stuff.

This isn't particularly uncommon in campaigns, and it doesn't really matter. The exact same language gets copied and pasted and spliced all over the place.

[You don't see any blue avatars now]

https://twitter.com/WalkerBragman/status/1225277176745992195
Maybe I'm just some radical tranny, but hearing myself and other trans women being described as "some man in a dress" (or rather, some men in dresses) made my skin crawl. I guess I should just be glad the odds of him being the nominee are very slim, but...
Not to mention that it's a gruesome reminder that I may never be truly accepted by the world around me. Especially since I live in North Carolina, where they made trans people pissing an issue.

[GeneralMacArthur]

https://twitter.com/WalkerBragman/status/1225277176745992195
Maybe I'm just some radical tranny, but hearing myself and other trans women being described as "some man in a dress" (or rather, some men in dresses) made my skin crawl. I guess I should just be glad the odds of him being the nominee are very slim, but...
Not to mention that it's a gruesome reminder that I may never be truly accepted by the world around me. Especially since I live in North Carolina, where they made trans people pissing an issue.

He's describing the way people in the midwest think, not the way he thinks.

[Frodo]

https://twitter.com/theintercept/status/1225592540461772800

Borrowing a page from Joe Biden, I see.... 

[Leinad]

https://twitter.com/WalkerBragman/status/1225277176745992195
Maybe I'm just some radical tranny, but hearing myself and other trans women being described as "some man in a dress" (or rather, some men in dresses) made my skin crawl. I guess I should just be glad the odds of him being the nominee are very slim, but...
Not to mention that it's a gruesome reminder that I may never be truly accepted by the world around me. Especially since I live in North Carolina, where they made trans people pissing an issue.

He's describing the way people in the midwest think, not the way he thinks.

So...he's saying he's "the intelligentsia?"

[GeneralMacArthur]

https://twitter.com/WalkerBragman/status/1225277176745992195
Maybe I'm just some radical tranny, but hearing myself and other trans women being described as "some man in a dress" (or rather, some men in dresses) made my skin crawl. I guess I should just be glad the odds of him being the nominee are very slim, but...
Not to mention that it's a gruesome reminder that I may never be truly accepted by the world around me. Especially since I live in North Carolina, where they made trans people pissing an issue.

He's describing the way people in the midwest think, not the way he thinks.

So...he's saying he's "the intelligentsia?"

He's not saying anything about himself at all.

[Leinad]

https://twitter.com/WalkerBragman/status/1225277176745992195
Maybe I'm just some radical tranny, but hearing myself and other trans women being described as "some man in a dress" (or rather, some men in dresses) made my skin crawl. I guess I should just be glad the odds of him being the nominee are very slim, but...
Not to mention that it's a gruesome reminder that I may never be truly accepted by the world around me. Especially since I live in North Carolina, where they made trans people pissing an issue.

He's describing the way people in the midwest think, not the way he thinks.

So...he's saying he's "the intelligentsia?"

He's not saying anything about himself at all.

Duh, he's saying something about trans people. Specifically that:

only the "intelligentsia" can understand why "some man wearing a dress should be in a locker room with their daughter."

i.e. he is "the intelligentsia" or he can't understand trans rights (which, again, he phrases in a very callous way that's only not transphobic if you make it clear you don't think of trans women that way). Which is it?

[GeneralMacArthur]

https://twitter.com/WalkerBragman/status/1225277176745992195
Maybe I'm just some radical tranny, but hearing myself and other trans women being described as "some man in a dress" (or rather, some men in dresses) made my skin crawl. I guess I should just be glad the odds of him being the nominee are very slim, but...
Not to mention that it's a gruesome reminder that I may never be truly accepted by the world around me. Especially since I live in North Carolina, where they made trans people pissing an issue.

He's describing the way people in the midwest think, not the way he thinks.

So...he's saying he's "the intelligentsia?"

He's not saying anything about himself at all.

Duh, he's saying something about trans people. Specifically that:

only the "intelligentsia" can understand why "some man wearing a dress should be in a locker room with their daughter."

i.e. he is "the intelligentsia" or he can't understand trans rights (which, again, he phrases in a very callous way that's only not transphobic if you make it clear you don't think of trans women that way). Which is it?

He's talking about two different groups of people, how they perceive a political issue in different ways, and what that means for party messaging.  In my view this is pretty obvious and hard to justify interpreting any other way.

[Forward]

Why don’t people ever watch the videos attached to tweets? How hard is it to watch a short clip? He uses “man in a dress” to describe how people in the Midwest feel about the issue, not how he feels about it. However, he absolutely does say that he’s a part of the “intelligentsia” that is accepting of trans rights. He says “we the intelligentsia, people who could make it to this room.”

[GeneralMacArthur]

Why don’t people ever watch the videos attached to tweets? How hard is it to watch a short clip? He uses “man in a dress” to describe how people in the Midwest feel about the issue, not how he feels about it. However, he absolutely does say that he’s a part of the “intelligentsia” that is accepting of trans rights. He says “we the intelligentsia, people who could make it to this room.”

In my defense, I didn't realize it was a video.  For some reason Atlas removes the metadata from the embedding (1:52, 86K views) that shows up on Twitter to let you know it's a video.

All I had to go off of was the Tweet (from the detestable Walker Bragman) which makes it sound like he's talking about the intellegentsia in third person.

[Leinad]

All I had to go off of was the Tweet (from the detestable Walker Bragman) which makes it sound like he's talking about the intellegentsia in third person.

Yeah same here, the tweet made it sound like he was positioning "real America" against "the intelligentsia and trans activists" and I'm so used to hearing Republicans say that I didn't question it.

That being said Bloomberg still isn't getting a pass from me. He's right you need to be a salesman, but I don't trust someone who instinctively refers to trans women as "men in dresses" to either sell it or even care about selling it.

And let's be clear: he was not quoting anyone. The full quote from Bloomberg: "if you want to know if somebody's a good salesman, give them the job of going to the Midwest, and picking a town, and selling to that town the concept that some man wearing a dress should be in the locker room with their daughter. If you can sell that you can sell anything."

He did not say "the concept that someone can identify as a gender other than their birth-assigned gender, and that's okay!" and then go on to say that Midwesterners will respond that they "don't want some man wearing a dress in the locker room with their daughter." That was *his wording.*

[Forward]

All I had to go off of was the Tweet (from the detestable Walker Bragman) which makes it sound like he's talking about the intellegentsia in third person.

Yeah same here, the tweet made it sound like he was positioning "real America" against "the intelligentsia and trans activists" and I'm so used to hearing Republicans say that I didn't question it.

That being said Bloomberg still isn't getting a pass from me. He's right you need to be a salesman, but I don't trust someone who instinctively refers to trans women as "men in dresses" to either sell it or even care about selling it.

And let's be clear: he was not quoting anyone. The full quote from Bloomberg: "if you want to know if somebody's a good salesman, give them the job of going to the Midwest, and picking a town, and selling to that town the concept that some man wearing a dress should be in the locker room with their daughter. If you can sell that you can sell anything."

He did not say "the concept that someone can identify as a gender other than their birth-assigned gender, and that's okay!" and then go on to say that Midwesterners will respond that they "don't want some man wearing a dress in the locker room with their daughter." That was *his wording.*

Dude, why did you leave out the part he says right after that? He says “they [Midwesterners] say ‘what on Earth are you talking about?’ and you say ‘Well, this person identifies his or her gender as different than what’s on their birth certificate’ and they say ‘What do you mean? You’re either born this or you’re born that.’”

He literally says exactly what you just said he didn’t say.

 Bragman’s description of the clip is extremely disingenuous. He makes it sound like Bloomberg is pitting himself against the Intelligentsia, when in fact he makes it very clear that he is part of the intelligentsia that supports trans rights.

[GeneralMacArthur]

All I had to go off of was the Tweet (from the detestable Walker Bragman) which makes it sound like he's talking about the intellegentsia in third person.

Yeah same here, the tweet made it sound like he was positioning "real America" against "the intelligentsia and trans activists" and I'm so used to hearing Republicans say that I didn't question it.

That being said Bloomberg still isn't getting a pass from me. He's right you need to be a salesman, but I don't trust someone who instinctively refers to trans women as "men in dresses" to either sell it or even care about selling it.

And let's be clear: he was not quoting anyone. The full quote from Bloomberg: "if you want to know if somebody's a good salesman, give them the job of going to the Midwest, and picking a town, and selling to that town the concept that some man wearing a dress should be in the locker room with their daughter. If you can sell that you can sell anything."

He did not say "the concept that someone can identify as a gender other than their birth-assigned gender, and that's okay!" and then go on to say that Midwesterners will respond that they "don't want some man wearing a dress in the locker room with their daughter." That was *his wording.*

Why does he need to say all that?  Most people don't just automatically assume that Bloomberg hates trans people and demand that he clearly state otherwise in every single trans-related quote.  That would get incredibly tiresome.

You're laying all these interpretations on him that are based on nothing more than your own mistrust of him.  There's nothing in the video to make you believe that he "instinctively" refers to trans women that way.

Again, the quote is pretty simple and obvious and an incredibly common sentiment.  It's you who's trying to blow it up into something more than it is.  Well, you and half of the extreme-left internet, but I don't expect much from them.

[GeneralMacArthur]

Reminder that Walker Bragman is a spoiled trust fund brat from the Hamptons who LARPs as a socialist revolutionary because it's the only way he can hang out with his Brooklyn friends and not feel lame.

He regularly engages in disingenuous, conspiratorial or outright false "journalism" but gets away with it because when you're a socialist, they (The Intercept, HuffPo, Salon, The Hill) let you do it.

He's most well-known for writing "The Liberal Case for Donald Trump."

[Leinad]

I still am not feeling as generous to his wording, but we can agree to disagree.

Anyway I don't know why people like the ex-Republican billionaire. If you want a moderate, Biden's better in basically every way, including his answers on trans issues. (I guess it's fine if you split the moderate vote, though, just don't accidentally give Bloomberg the nomination! )

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

It would be nice if Bloomberg would at least state his pronouns before every interview and speech he gave.  I don't think that's asking for a lot.

[GeneralMacArthur]

I still am not feeling as generous to his wording, but we can agree to disagree.

Anyway I don't know why people like the ex-Republican billionaire. If you want a moderate, Biden's better in basically every way, including his answers on trans issues. (I guess it's fine if you split the moderate vote, though, just don't accidentally give Bloomberg the nomination! )

Bloomberg's belonging to any particular political party has always been meaningless.  He was a Democrat his entire life, then switched to run as a Republican in 2001 because the Democratic mayoral primary was a bloodbath.  It's kind of like how Eisenhower chose the Republican Party in 1952, but in 1948 he and Truman had talked about running an Eisenhower/Truman Democratic ticket to stop none other than General Douglas MacArthur, then running in the Republican primary.

More than looking at what party he belonged to, you should look at Bloomberg's positions that he's held his entire life.  He has always been vocally pro-choice.  He has always supported stem-cell research.  He has always been aggressively in favor of gun control.  He has always been a huge environmental advocate and in favor of aggressive steps to combat climate change.

The point being, if you want to take Bloomberg seriously, don't just look at some caricature of him or "oh he was a Republican."  Go look at what he did when he was mayor of NYC, how he governed.  Look at it in the context of what NYC was in 2001 and how he left it in 2013.  Look at the complete package, not just picking out isolated things.  And decide whether that's what you want for the country.

[JA]

https://twitter.com/Mike2020/status/1225566201079848960?s=19

[Tintrlvr]

https://twitter.com/Mike2020/status/1225566201079848960?s=19

@Mike2020 tweets are the best thing to come out of the 2020 Presidential election thus far.

[JGibson]

https://twitter.com/WalkerBragman/status/1225277176745992195
Maybe I'm just some radical tranny, but hearing myself and other trans women being described as "some man in a dress" (or rather, some men in dresses) made my skin crawl. I guess I should just be glad the odds of him being the nominee are very slim, but...
Not to mention that it's a gruesome reminder that I may never be truly accepted by the world around me. Especially since I live in North Carolina, where they made trans people pissing an issue.

Yet another reason why Bloomberg should NOT be the Democratic candidate in 2020.

[Gass3268]

This should probably get pinned.