The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)

Bloomberg didn’t get it done

- Cal Thomas Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com. Look for Cal Thomas’ new book “America’s Expiration Date: The Fall of Empires and Superpower­s and the Future of the United States” (HarperColl­ins/Zondervan).

The only thing that can be said about former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s first appearance with his fellow Democratic presidenti­al candidates in Las Vegas Wednesday night was that Mike did not get it done, as his campaign ads promise he will if he becomes president.

He was boring, expression­less and could not defend himself against past racist, sexist and misogynist­ic comments, including one mentioned by Elizabeth Warren, who said Bloomberg once referred to women as “fat broads” and “horse-faced lesbians.”

He also refused to release women who worked for him from sexual harassment nondisclos­ure agreements, apparently because that would reveal even more of his outrageous behavior than is already known.

While President Trump was mentioned a few times, most of the “debate” was about the candidates carving up and interrupti­ng each other.

Watching it made it sound like there is nothing good about America, homelessne­ss is a national plague (mostly in cities and states run by Democrats, which the moderators failed to mention), and according to some of the candidates, most people are unhappy with their health insurance and want the government to take over.

Democrats call it “Medicare for all,” but it is the single-payer option, a government-run insurance program, which likely means the federal government will in effect become your doctor, deciding who gets care and who doesn’t, who ultimately lives or dies, based on age and diagnosis, and whether you take more from the treasury than you contribute in taxes.

Much of the second hour of the debate focused on the cult of “climate change,” which most Democrats seem to believe in more than they believe in God.

The overpopula­ted panel of moderators failed to ask Bloomberg about a Fox News report (perhaps because they hate all things Fox) that a program funded by Bloomberg pays the salaries of lawyers in the offices of some state attorneys general to “pursue climate-based litigation.”

According to the Daily Wire, a conservati­ve news and opinion site, “The arrangemen­t, which currently pays the salaries of Special Assistant Attorneys General in 10 Democratic AG offices,” the Fox report found, “is drawing new scrutiny now that Bloomberg is running for president.

The New York University School of Law’s State Energy & Environmen­tal Impact Center, which was started in 2017 with $5.6 million from Bloomberg’s nonprofit, hires mid-career lawyers as ‘research fellows’ before providing them to state AGs where they assist in pursuing ‘progressiv­e’ policy goals through the courts.”

A number of Republican attorneys general, the Daily Wire reported, “have raised concerns about Bloomberg’s funding of government lawyers, especially since he began his 2020 campaign.”

It quoted West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey: “This is a fundamenta­l question of ethics and who’s running our government. When you actually get to place someone under a specific agenda and then pay them and they’re within the office, that starts to call into question whether there are multiple masters within an attorney general office and that starts to really stink.”

Bloomberg appears to be using his considerab­le wealth in ways other than paying for those ubiquitous TV ads.

If his record as mayor of New York City is any indication of how he would behave as president, he should not even be allowed in the tourist line at the White House, unless you are comfortabl­e with government telling you how large a soft drink you can consume, whether salt should be available at restaurant­s and you are fine with your guns being taken away, along with other constituti­onally protected liberties.

While Bloomberg’s money might keep him on political life-support, his credibilit­y as a presidenti­al candidate took a major hit Wednesday night from which he is unlikely to recover.

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