If Bloomberg Couldn’t Buy 2020, How Could Russia Buy 2016?
“We had years where people were saying a couple hundred thousand dollars in barely literate Facebook ads from Russians caused Donald Trump to win. Here you had a guy spend nearly $1 billion and he went nowhere. It’s a humiliating defeat for Michael Bloomberg,” she said.
Host Bret Baier drilled the point home: “So Russians influenced the election with $200,000, or $300,000 in Facebook ads? And Mike Bloomberg couldn’t get more than 50 delegates with $600 million dollars?”
BLOOMBERG SLAYED THE MYTH THAT MONEY BUYS ELECTIONS:
Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg spent $500 million on his failed presidential campaign. That’s $500,000,000, by the way, with eight zeros.
His ads ran everywhere: No Virginian could load a YouTube video without seeing Hizzoner’s face. He bought time to playact as the president and update the country on the COVID-19 epidemic. He even bought ad time during Democratic presidential debates — padding out his arguments with unchallenged praise for the Bloomberg agenda. He hired a veritable army of staff (at good wages) and sent them out to knock on doors, flood phone lines, and ensure that voters got wall-to-wall coverage: all-Bloomberg, all-the-time.
But as Super Tuesday ended, it became Hangover Wednesday for the Bloomberg brigades. Spending $500 million, or nearly as much as Hillary Clinton’s campaign spent in 2015 and 2016 combined, managed to buy Bloomberg a solitary win — in the territory of American Samoa. There, Bloomberg won 175 votes (that’s not a typo), edging out Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D., Hawaii), a native of the territory, who picked up a whopping 103 votes.
I said this in 2016 when Jeb and Hillary were outspending Trump to little effect. The money won’t work if the crap you are trying to sell is obviously crap.
AC