Bloomberg? Hindenberg more like.
Having bought his way on to the stage, the former New York mayor was somehow unable to pay his own brain to come up with the right answers to the absolute thrashing he was given by the other candidates, particularly Elizabeth Warren, in Nevada on Wednesday night.
Yet his money has also bought him a TV station, so I had to laugh at the way his employees cobbled together a series of clips that came under the title “highlights”.
First and foremost, it has to be the only place you’ll find Bloomberg using a line which I have to assume he thought would win him the debate hands down. Check it out for yourself, it comes first in the above clip. In fairness, the package does include some attacks on him, but definitely not the most hard-hitting ones. Nothing about stop and frisk, nothing about refusing to release his employees from their Non Disclosure Agreements, nothing about his reported misogyny.
Personally, I reckon Bernie Sanders was the winner on the night. Warren definitely had a good night attacking those around her but I reckon she’s so far behind in the polls that her performance may have helped Sanders more than herself.
I think Bernie did really well to dodge the blows thrown at him – the usual ones on Medicare for All were harmless enough, but since he has pulled away as the front runner there are some new modes of attack, both of which are ambiguous yet well supported by the corporate media.
One such line of questioning is over the release of his medical records. A spokesperson for his campaign said this narrative was similar to Birtherism and she’s right. He has released letters from three different doctors with plenty of information following his heart attack last year. If he releases more, will that be enough to stop the media from pursuing the whole “what’s he hiding?” narrative?
Then there’s the so-called “Bernie Bro’s”. Apparently not only does Sanders have to take ownership of all the negative comments posted online by his “supporters”, he is also the only one with this problem. Both points are complete nonsense, yet the MSNBCs and CNNs of this world persist in highlighting them. Aren’t these the same people who went on about Russians creating fake account to stoke division in US politics?
It will be very interesting to see how the Nevada caucuses turn out this weekend. Assuming they do work out, that is, given what happened in Iowa. JLP
First Person Plural 