Michael Bloomberg to the rescue?
Not likely.
Nervous Democrats who are increasingly worried about their partys leftward tilt have been growing more vocal about the possibility that the man or woman who emerges from the outsized field to run against President Donald Trump may be too far off in left field to win in next years general election. In a very real way, its a not unreasonable concern, what with Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren offering big-government, anti-capitalist visions of a future that would leave great swaths of our nations economy unrecognizable.
Warren, a Massachusetts uber-liberal who has a detailed plan for everything, and Sanders, a Vermont socialist who is shorter on the specifics but no less so on his certainty, have been getting lots of press of late as theyve risen in public opinion surveys. And with their ascension has come a whole lot of hand-wringing by Democrats who want most to defeat Trump in next years presidential election less than 12 months from now.
A note to the overly fretful: Former Vice President Joe Biden, a moderate who has consistently been leading the Democratic pack, continues to do so. And there are many others in the race. Suppose one of them - the pragmatic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, of Minnesota, perhaps has an unexpectedly strong showing in the Iowa caucuses, which will be held in early February. Will folks continue to worry about the Democratic Partys precipitous left turn?
Theres solid evidence that candidates who are perceived as more moderate fare better in presidential elections than those at either extreme. With that in mind, billionaire Bloomberg, who had earlier ruled out a run at the presidency, suddenly changed course and took steps toward taking a shot - a long shot, one might say in the Democratic nominating contest. Though its possible to imagine that the 77-year-old bachelor could perhaps make a decent candidate in a 2020 general election, its far easier to see him as struggling mightily in the Democratic Partys primaries. He was, after all, the guy behind the so-called stop-and-frisk policing method in New York City that largely targeted young African-American men simply because of the color of their skin. Think that will play well with the base of Democratic voters?
Even without Bloomberg, Democrats already have more than enough presidential candidates.
