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Bloomberg Quits Race for the White House

Written by Subject: United States

Bloomberg Quits Race for the White House

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

On Tuesday, Bloomberg News reported the following:

"Michael Bloomberg plans to stay in the presidential race until after the results of Super Tuesday primaries are counted, his campaign manager said, rejecting calls from (Dem) officials (that he) drop out and make way for Joe Biden," adding:

He "dismissed suggestions that he drop out," stressing that "no one will secure the nomination before the (July) convention."

Money can't buy everything — no matter how much is spent trying.

Bloomberg did poorly the first time he appeared on the ballot in 14 Super Tuesday states, winning only the American Samoa caucus, despite a spending blitzkrieg — over $500 million of his own money to try buying the White House, more on advertising than all other Dem aspirants combined.

While winning small numbers of delegates on Tuesday, he finished no better than third in all mainland contests.

Asked if he would reassess things late Tuesday, his campaign manager Kevin Sheekey said while taking stock of where things stand "after every election" goes on, Bloomberg looks forward to competing in upcoming primaries.

Citing an unnamed aide, Bloomberg News reported that his "campaign would look at the results but that the intent is to continue competing," adding: 

"Bloomberg himself brushed off questions earlier Tuesday about whether he would drop out of the race."

When asked, he said "I'm in it to win it." A day later, he dropped out, saying the following:

"I've always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it." 

"After yesterday's vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American (sic), Joe Biden.

"I've known Joe for a very long time. I know his decency, his honesty, and his commitment to the issues that are so important to our country – including gun safety, health care, climate change, and good jobs (sic)."

He ignored Biden's longstanding support for dirty business as usual — pro-war, pro-business, anti-populist, anti-social justice, anti-governance serving all Americans equitably positions throughout his public life for nearly half a century.

No political candidate in US history ever spent more for less results than Bloomberg in his presidential bid.

Instead of spending over $500 million on self-aggrandizement, likely tens of millions more to come for an elaborate infrastructure remaining in place.

It includes numerous staff members he pledged to pay through the November elections to support the Dem nominee. 

Imagine the good his spending could have accomplished if used for this purpose.

How much healthcare for needy households and higher education for students to avoid debt bondage could he have bought with money thrown away on self-promotion?

How many homeless could he have funded shelter for? How many food insecure families could he have aided?

He could have funded a significant pro-peace, equity and justice campaign, the power of his wealth perhaps able to make a difference.

He entered the race to become Dem standard bearer, believing Biden was weak and beatable.

He bet wrong. Dem party bosses support the former vice president. Super Tuesday results proved it.

He believed money could buy the Dem nomination and White House by spending enough.

Yet he dropped out early in the race badly beaten. His record as New York City mayor left him vulnerable, including his racist stop-and-risk policy.

Black and Latino males were disproportionately targeted. In 2002 when he became mayor, the NYPD made about 97,000 annual stop and frisk searches.

At the end of his tenure in 2013, it was over 700,000, a policy Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas denounced in Terry v. Ohio (1968), a dissenting view, saying:

Absent probable cause, "(w)e  hold today that the police have greater authority to make a 'seizure' and conduct a 'search' than a judge has to authorize such action. We have said precisely the opposite over and over again."

"To give the police greater power than a magistrate is to take a long step down the totalitarian path." 

"Perhaps such a step is desirable to cope with modern forms of lawlessness." 

"But if it is taken, it should be the deliberate choice of the people through a constitutional amendment."

Throughout the US, Blacks and Latinos are racially profiled and otherwise abused by law enforcement.

The New York State's ACLU earlier denounced NYPD stop-and-frisk practices, saying:

"The Department's own reports on its stop-and-frisk activity confirm what many people in communities of color across the city have long known: The police are stopping hundreds of thousands of law abiding New Yorkers every year, and the vast majority are black and Latino."

Multi-billionaire Bloomberg long ago lost touch with ordinary people who struggle daily to get by.

Dozens of women sued him for sexual harassment and discriminatory practices. He boasted about his womanizing exploits, including in an autobiography.

Now out of the race for the White House, he's helping Joe Biden become Dem standard bearer and will aid his campaign against Trump if nominated.

Based on Super Tuesday results, the 2020 race for Dems looks like a repeat of 2016 — assuring Hillary's nomination then, Biden the apparent choice of Dem party bosses to face Trump in November.

A Final Comment

Is Warren next to drop out? According to the Hill and other media, she'll meet with staff to assess her position in the race after doing poorly so far, winning no states.

Through Super Tuesday, she won an estimated 50 delegates, noticeably finishing behind Biden and Sanders in Massachusetts, her home state.

Following her Feb. 29 loss in South Carolina, her campaign manager Roger Lau said the following:

"Our internal projections continue to show Elizabeth winning delegates in nearly every state in play on Super Tuesday, and in a strong position to earn a sizable delegate haul coming out of the night."

After things didn't turn out as expected, Lau said the team is "obviously disappointed. (Warren is) going to take time right now to think through the right way to continue this fight."

An internal campaign memo quoted by the Boston Herald was wrong, saying she was "poised to finish in the top two in over half of Super Tuesday states (eight of 14), in the top three in all of them, and is on pace to pick up at-large statewide delegates in all but one."

She finished third or fourth in Super Tuesday contests, meeting the 15% threshold to win delegates in only 5 of 14 states — doing no better in earlier races.

Is it just a matter of days before she bows out, leaving Biden and Sanders in the race to be Dem standard bearer against Trump in November?

VISIT MY WEBSITE: stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman). Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

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