Former New York Mayor and gun control advocate Michael Bloomberg files paperwork to join the 2020 race.

Michael Bloomberg. Politico/Getty.

Former New York Mayor and gun control advocate Michael Bloomberg has filed paperwork in Alabama that would allow him to run as a Presidential candidate in the 2020 Democrat race. Politico. Bloomberg is a billionaire candidate who already almost single-handedly funds the modern gun control movement. Bloomberg has been planning a presidential run for a long time but he was holding out of the 2020 race due to the presence of moderates like Joe Biden. But with Biden failing in the polls and socialists like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders rising, Bloomberg wants to take the centrist lane. Bloomberg would face an uphill battle to make the November and December debate stages, but much like Tom Steyer, he has to money to advertise. Though Biden is popular among establishment Democrats for his massive amount of funding, Bloomberg will likely face criticism for his polices as Mayor of New York, which he won as a Republican, which included tough on crime laws like stop and frisk. 

My Comment:

Just when we got rid of the worst anti-gun candidates, Robert Francis O'Rourke and Eric Swalwell, the big daddy himself decides to join the race. Bloomberg is the modern gun control movement and if it wasn't for him I am guessing the gun control movement would be broke and leaderless and not a factor at all. Bloomberg represents a clear and present danger to all gun owners in America. 

I don't know anyone who wanted Bloomberg to enter the race. Indeed, Bloomberg is one of the more hated political figures in America. If he wants to appeals to centrists and anti-Trump conservatives (all four of them) he's out of luck because Americans remember his gun control advocacy and his stupid soda taxes. Woke leftists will hate him because he was tough on crime and because he is white. And the economic leftists will hate him because he hates them and their policies. The only people that would like him are the neoliberal establishment and they are already all in on Joe Biden and Peter Buttgieg. 

Speaking of Biden and Buttgieg, they are the big losers from this. Both of them are trying to take up the centrist lane and are already competing with each other. Bloomberg will split the vote further and will probably ensure that neither of them can get enough votes to keep Warren or Sanders away from the candidacy. Given that Bloomberg is trying to stop that he's really working against his own purposes.

But I'm not sure that Bloomberg can even accomplish being a spoiler for Biden and Buttgieg. Nobody likes the man and I really don't understand why he thinks differently. Bloomberg was never popular and he doesn't really appeal to anyone. I think his run will end up exactly as Tom Steyer's has so far. A lot of money being spent and nothing to show for it. 

I think that Bloomberg saw what President Trump did in 2016 and assumes that he can do the same thing. After all, Bloomberg has more money than Trump did. Indeed, he has enough money that he could outspend all of the other candidates combined. I think he assumes that money is the only thing that matters in politics. 

But that isn't true. Tom Steyer can attest to that. What Trump did in 2016 is pay attention to a large group of people that were completely unserved by either party and then expanded his base by appealing to the rest of the GOP and independents. Bloomberg can't do that because he won't serve any purpose to any group. 

Bloomberg could go single issue too. He's hugely opposed to gun rights and could be the anti-gun candidate after O'Rourke and Swalwell have left. But he forgets how poorly those candidates did. O'Rourke went full gun confiscation, something that even Bloomberg only alludes too, and everyone hated him for it. O'Rourke spiked any possible gun control laws before impeachment killed it for good and to Republicans he was evil incarnate. If Bloomberg does become the candidate expect gun rights groups to go wild with massive donations from small donors. 

But I doubt that will happen. Bloomberg appeals to no one and I don't think Joe Biden is as weak as he thinks. Biden's a joke but he's more popular and, dare I say it, moderate than Bloomberg. He is scandal ridden and might be going senile but he has a better chance of being the candidate than Bloomberg. And if Biden can't beat Sanders or Warren, then I'm damn sure that Bloomberg can't either. 

I say if Bloomberg wants to waste his money on a run than more power too him. He, along with Steyer, would normally be spending millions of dollars building up their chosen candidate or saving for the general election. Now they will both be spending their millions on themselves and tearing down their primary opponents. Given how broke the DNC is and how much of a fundraising advantage President Trump has this is probably a good thing for the Republican Party.