By Curt Anderson February 5, 2020 5:33 pm Category: Politics (5.0 from 1 vote)
Rules of the Post
Presidential candidates spent a lot of money and time in Iowa and got a measly return on their investment. The "winning candidates", Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders, each won ten pledged delegates. 1,990 of 3,979 pledged delegate votes are needed to win the presidential nomination at the 2020 Democratic Party convention's first ballot. Because of the snafu with an app, the winners were denied the optics of victory speeches before supporters in Iowa, which in theory would have propelled them toward primary success in the subsequent states.
NY Post: Mike Bloomberg emerges as big winner in Iowa caucus debacle, boosters say
"The winner of the Iowa caucus was Mike Bloomberg," claimed Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, the first elected Democrat in New York to endorse Bloomberg.
"The Iowa Caucus was a disaster. This debacle totally vindicates Mike Bloomberg's strategy of focusing on the country as a whole as opposed to the first few states."
Bellone also said the Iowa mess plays into Bloomberg's brand and reputation as a competent manager, noting that the company the billionaire mogul founded, Bloomberg LP, transits information through its data terminals.
"They could have used Bloomberg terminals to report the results," Bellone quipped.
The leading candidates competing in Iowa — Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden — blew through tens of millions for questionable results and for the winner, an arguably Pyrrhic victory, campaign analysts said.
The Abstract vs. an Actual Person
A poll asked registered voters their impression of billionaires. "Most Democratic voters say that billionaire politicians are out of touch with the average American, according to the latest Hill-HarrisX poll. Sixty-nine percent of Democratic voters in the nationwide survey said that billionaires don't understand the problems facing the majority of Americans."
I suspect in the minds of many the word billionaire conjures up a cartoon characterization of a rich person. Maybe it is the little man on Monopoly cards or Mr. Burns of the Simpsons. The reality of how people feel about an individual billionaire is probably different. In the case of Mike Bloomberg, he was not born into wealth. His father was a bookkeeper for a dairy company. Bloomberg's success story is more inspirational than that of Donald Trump. A New York Times investigation on President Donald Trump's wealth found he was earning $200,000 annually in today's dollars from his father's empire by the time he was 3 years old. By age 8, Trump was a millionaire, The Times reported.
Hypothetical General-Election Matchups
All registered voters were asked whom they would vote for if the 2020 presidential election were held today, each of the following or President Trump. (Enlarge chart below)
Bloomberg beats Trump by 47% to 40% among registered voters in the Morning Consult poll. Both Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders in a hypothetical matchup outdo Trump by 46% to 42%. Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg each best Trump by one percentage point.
Presidential Candidate Selector
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Comments on "Was Mike Bloomberg the real winner in Iowa?":
Presidential candidates spent a lot of money and time in Iowa and got a measly return on their investment. The "winning candidates", Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders, each won ten pledged delegates. 1,990 of 3,979 pledged delegate votes are needed to win the presidential nomination at the 2020 Democratic Party convention's first ballot. Because of the snafu with an app, the winners were denied the optics of victory speeches before supporters in Iowa, which in theory would have propelled them toward primary success in the subsequent states.
