Conservative Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin bashed two New York City mayors who thought that they could sail to the presidency from the mayor's seat. One was a spectacular failure and the other seems to be on life support.
Rubin recalled former Mayor Rudy Giuliani's 2008 bid for president taking a pass on campaigning in early states where he likely wouldn't have been as popular. He hoped to go straight to Florida and win overwhelmingly. It didn't work out that well.
"He was wrong — so wrong that the strategy he employed was subsequently the subject of much ridicule," wrote Rubin.
Now, Mayor Mike Bloomberg is trying his own move, going all-in on Super Tuesday states using over $500 million.
"As in 2008, primary voting has been going on for about a month," wrote Rubin. "Bloomberg missed eight debates, bombed in his debut performance and was flatfooted, snippy and uncharming in his second outing. He was by far the most unfavorable Democrat with the South Carolina electorate, which is about 56 percent African American."
The polls aren't looking good for Bloomberg, though. There's a possibility he won't even win any delegates in the states up for Tuesday.
"When it comes to casting presidential primary ballots, voters want to know that their pick could stand up to the other party’s nominee in the general election, to feel as though they know the candidate and to make sure he shares their values," Rubin surmised. "This is not a mayoral race in which you want the most competent technocrat to pave the streets, maintain public safety and expand the tax base. The president is not merely the CEO of the executive branch; he’s also the embodiment of the country and the leader of the free world."
Despite the complaints from Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) Bloomberg really hasn't been able to buy his way into the presidential nomination.
"It actually takes vision, a charismatic candidate, a competent staff and more," she wrote.
Over the weekend, Bloomberg had a humiliating moment when he attended the services at a Black Selma, Alabama church. Parishioners attended, but stood and turned their backs on him, symbolic of the way he turned his back on the Black community.
Rubin suggested people should be less paranoid about big money, dark money and any kind of money.
"A lot of that money is unnecessary, although an army of consultants will con the unwary, ego-driven billionaire to spend his last dime trying to crush his poorer but more skilled opponents," she explained.
She specifically cited the overwhelming success Pete Buttigieg had without spending half of the money that Tom Steyer did.
"If one needs any other reason to vote for someone other than Bloomberg (in addition to his arrogance, his stop-and-frisk policy as mayor, his refusal to totally free former employees from nondisclosure agreements, his slow-walking release of his tax returns and his disingenuous ads implying that former president Barack Obama endorsed him), it is to put the role of money in presidential politics in perspective," Rubin closed. "You do not need spend the most to be successful; you just need enough and a great candidate who can maximize free media. Voters should not feel compelled to reward a candidate as ill-prepared to confront his opponents as was Bloomberg simply because they have seen gobs of his ads."
