Clinton as VP is a bad idea
Bloomberg’s trial balloon should have pin stuck in it
A Mike Bloomberg-Hillary Clinton ticket would be a disaster for the Democrats and the mere floating of the trial balloon shows how the party has lost its way in the face of a newly strengthened Donald Trump.
Two ego-driven, self-important, rich New Yorkers out of touch with mainstream America at the top of the ticket?
You got it!
The Bloomberg-Clinton leak balloon has the look of a desperate ploy for attention for Bloomberg, who has skipped the first four Democratic contests and is relying on a risky, unproven Super Tuesday strategy to win the nomination.
Rather than wait until March 3 when he’s finally competing for votes, Bloomberg’s campaign leaked out the Clinton vice presidential speculation to the Drudge Report, assuring that it would bounce around the political world for the next few days.
But the politics of the Bloomberg-Clinton partnership doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Putting Hillary Clinton on the ticket as vice presidential nominee will completely shut out liberals and infuriate the Bernie Sanders wing of the party.
Many Bernie Bros — as well as supporters of Sen. Elizabeth Warren — would simply sit out the election rather than vote for the moderate former New York mayor and the hated Hillary. They already think the party is rigged against Sanders, and this ticket would prove it.
Mainstream voters would likely blanch at the sight of the multibillionaire Bloomberg trying to buy his way into the White House and manipulate the Constitution by moving to a different state in order to put fellow New Yorker Clinton on the ticket.
And what would women voters think of this Bloomberg-Clinton team? Do they need to be man-splaned into getting behind yet another sexist man at the top of the ticket with a woman as nothing more than a sidekick?
Bloomberg, already under fire for his treatment of subordinates, doesn’t help his case with his condescending attitude toward women.
“I would not be where I am today without the talented women around me,” Bloomberg tweeted this weekend. “I will always be a champion for women in the workplace”
Yuck. Yes, that’s why he wants to team up with Hillary Clinton, who shamefully denigrated the victims of her husband’s sexual predation.
Throwing Hillary Clinton into the 2020 mix shows Democrats are still fixated on their 2016 loss, and more concerned with getting even somehow than winning the election.
Even putting it out as a trial balloon shows the poor political judgment of Bloomberg, who has yet to set foot on the debate stage where he would be forced to defend his record.
Former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg often says this election should be about the future, but the Bloomberg-Clinton ticket is a throwback to the past. Democrats should loudly reject it. They’d be better off going with Buttigieg or Amy Klobuchar or yes, even Elizabeth Warren.