The billionaire Michael Bloomberg is a world-famous former three-term mayor (and wealthiest resident) of America’s principal city. He also commands a global media empire. He just spent half a billion dollars in an attempt to win the coming election, and accomplished nothing more than to win a primary in American Samoa.
So: next time you hear someone whingeing about “money in politics” or Citizens United v. FEC, you can point this out. The same goes for that “Russia hijacked the 2016 election” nonsense: even at the upper limit of what the Russians are alleged to have spent to buy media influence, it was a hundredth of what Bloomberg shelled out.
There is no question that it costs money to run a political campaign, but the idea that there is any dependable linear correlation between money spent and votes cast should, at this point, be revealed as obvious nonsense. It should also be seen, by any self-respecting voter, as a patronizing insult.
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And I’ll bet there are a few nervous folks on the top floors of the big ad agencies right now.
It was a bit much, the endless advertisements on Facebook and the like. I’m sure many had the sort of reaction I did: “Please Mr. Bloomberg, can I just watch old MTV videos on YouTube in peace?”
Not persuaded. I accept that money is not enough, but enough money is usually enough. Bloomberg spent his money foolishly. JFK’s dad spent his money wisely. You can ‘buy’ an election, especially the sort of state-level elections that Soros buys, but you also need to be good at operating the relevant election machine.
Fair points, BEL.
The times were quite different in 1960, though. The media were a narrow, top-down system where influence could be wielded vertically without horizontal competition, and campaign laws were far looser. It was harder for back-room influence to see the light of day (though we can be quite sure that much of it still doesn’t).
And yes, Bloomberg truly beclowned himself here. How much of a bubble so you have to live in to think that it’s a good idea to run gun-grab ads during the Super Bowl?
As I said in my last paragraph: money still matters, and you won’t rise to high office without it. But “the idea that there is any dependable linear correlation between money spent and votes cast should, at this point, be revealed as obvious nonsense.”
Is it absurd paranoia to think (as I do half-think) that this is all part of a larger scheme? Bloomberg gets in there for five minutes, then drops out, along with others all playing roles designed to deliver the intended “democratic” result of Biden? I don’t know. Maybe that’s crazy…
Hi Jacques,
I rather doubt that Bloomberg was taking orders — he is a party outsider, and rich enough to do what he likes — but one never knows. I do think some of the others, in particular Buttigieg and Klobuchar, were informed that it was time to get out of the way.
And, lest we forget there’s been, aside from the Russians of course …
http://malcolmpollack.com/2018/03/21/facebook-trump-obama-and-the-persistent-fallacy-of-media-hypocrisy/
Bloomberg’s objective was to backstop Biden and prevent a Biden slip from throwing Sanders into a lead that would force an embarassing convention operation or worse. He hedged and in no way played to win. 500 M is not pocket money, but a small price to pay when preventing a popular insurgency as an oligarch worth 120x that amount.
Fair points in turn, Malcolm. My hunch is that the reason why the Soros crowd are buying up state AGs and DAs is partly because the difficulty and cost of buying up ‘normal’ politicians is getting out of hand. The problem with that approach — which they will eventually learn — is that state AGs and DAs can’t so easily hide from the people who are hurt by their corruption.
Bloomberg’s money bought Virginia and now its on the road to becoming NJ,NY, Cal take your pick. It seems to me he just didn’t scale things effectively.
Thurgood,
Sorry, but I think that’s far too altruistic. I think this run was purely a matter of colossal, plutocratic vanity.
http://ninetymilesfromtyranny.blogspot.com/2020/03/bloomberg-meme-dump.html
John H. –
Bloomberg’s money may have been spent freely in Virginia, but Virginia’s fate was sealed years before when we as Americans convinced ourselves that we would remain we, as we slowly became them. Less obtusely, it was our naive notion that we could import peoples drastically different from ourselves, and remain as we were.
Money doesn’t buy elections but it does buy politicians, which is a pretty big problem, no?
Lacander,
Money buys people. Always has, always will.