Put Yourself in Michael Bloomberg's Shoes | 2020 Presidential Run

Put yourself in the shoes of Michael Bloomberg.

You built a MASSIVELY successful billion-dollar tech company. You climbed from the middle class to become the 9th richest person in the United States.

You then become mayor of America’s largest city for 12 years. Unheard of in American political history!

Altogether you have more business experience than all of the other Democratic candidates COMBINED.

You also have more experience ACTUALLY running a government.

In other words, you have a long-track record of GETTING SH*T DONE.

(michael bloomberg presidential run)

But therein lies Michael Bloomberg’s problem.

With Bloomberg’s announcement, all I seem to hear from Democrats is a collective groan.

And why?

Because he is successful?

I understand if you have serious policy differences with Michael Bloomberg because you associate yourself with the far-left flank of the Democratic party, but if you are a centrist Democrat currently supporting Biden, Pete, Booker, or Kamala then what do they have over Bloomberg?

They share a similar platform. Bloomberg wants to increase taxes on the rich. He also wants to provide universal access to healthcare without eliminating private insurance.

But when you have a long-record of actually GETTING SH*T DONE that impacts millions of lives it means you’ll inevitably have to make some unpopular choices.

Bloomberg’s opponents will focus on his “Big Gulp Ban,” which was well-intentioned, but I think rather than an outright ban he should have just put a higher tax on soda to help offset the negative externalities to our healthcare system associated with heavy sugar consumption. Any behavioral economist worth his salt would say that sugar should be taxed at a higher rate due to its health risks.

(michael bloomberg presidential run)

His opponents will also focus on “Stop-and-Frisk,” which is questionable as to whether it actually reduced crime, but even if it marginally did so it probably wasn’t worth the cost of making minorities feel uncomfortable in their own communities. Regardless of the wisdom of “Stop-and-Frisk”, it was undeniably well-intentioned.

It would have been easy for Bloomberg to stop “Stop-and-Frisk” at the first sign of backlash, but he didn’t because he felt lives were at stake, specifically black lives who are most negatively impacted by high crime rates. He wasn’t deaf to the outrage though because he slowly reduced the amount of “Stop-and-Frisks” so long as evidence on the ground supported it. By the time he left office, he cut stops by 94%.

But here is the thing I’d encourage everyone to consider — these controversial policies were merely tactics in Bloomberg’s larger pursuit of noble objectives.

The media and ignorant voters often miss the forest for the trees.

The big picture is that Bloomberg wanted to protect NYers and in this regard, he was MASSIVELY successful. As part of his health agenda, he aggressively went after smoking, which saved untold lives, and whereas he used to get attacked on his smoking regulations he no longer does as public opinion finally caught up to him. That is true leadership and political courage! Bloomberg also reduced the murder rate by 50% making NYC one of the safest large cities in America. Keep in mind too, that Bloomberg became mayor on the heels of 9/11.

(michael bloomberg presidential run)

The only way a Republican gets elected 3X in one of the most liberal cities in America with a 2-term mayoral limit is if he does a stunning job, which Bloomberg unquestionably did. Mayor Bloomberg will go down as one of the greatest mayors in American history.

As the New York Times reported,

“No one is more closely associated with New York City’s 21st-century renaissance than Michael Bloomberg. Crime plummeted, schools improved, racial tensions eased, the arts flourished, tourism boomed and city coffers swelled. Bloomberg ranks by any fair reckoning as one of Gotham’s all-time greatest leaders.”

Just contrast that with our current mayor Bill de Blasio.

As a Republican, I’d seriously consider voting for Bloomberg over Trump, but Bloomberg will likely lose in the Democratic primary because he is too much Wall Street and not enough Broadway.