Can money buy you the US presidency? World's 14th richest man, Michael Bloomberg, enters race for Democrat nomination
Can money buy you the US presidency? Or at least, can it buy the Democrat nomination? We are about to find out.
For entering the presidential race - belatedly, and with a decidedly mixed reputation - is a man worth at least $50 billion dollars.
Michael Bloomberg is, by some estimates, the 14th richest man in the world, and in the top ten in the United States. And he is not shy about spending it in this quixotic bid to win the White House - he has already paid $35 million for an opening salvo of TV ads.
Bloomberg, however, is not just wealth and ego. He is a former mayor of New York City, an activist on climate change and gun control, and he despises Donald Trump. He is pitching himself as “a doer and a problem solver, not a talker” and as a man who relishes a tough fight.
And on winning the presidency next year he promises voters, “I’m all in.”
You don’t need to be told how this is going down with established Democratic contenders. The other 17 candidates have been criss-crossing the lonely prairies of Iowa and the rust belt cities of the Mid-West, valiantly raising money, shaking hands and posing for selfies for two years.
Now in waltzes a billionaire who won’t even bother contesting the opening primaries.
Elizabeth Warren has warned him the money can buy you cars and houses, but “not democracy.” Bernie Sanders sees Bloomberg as the very type of entitled plutocrat that his whole campaign is designed to combat.
But the American media will cover him with fascination. Not only because money does buy you influence and a place at the top table in American politics, but because there is a compelling story-line to go with his candidacy: Bloomberg versus Trump would be a New York grudge match for the ages. Two of the city’s billionaires - both in their 70s - fighting it out on the greatest stage of all.
Bloomberg has real flaws for Democrats. He was once a Republican, he is the author of a stop-and-search policy on New York’s streets that antagonised a generation of African-Americans and he has a history of making belittling comments about women.
Furthermore, Trump is likely to relish the arrival of Bloomberg into the maelstrom of presidential politics. It muddies the waters for an already confused Democratic field of candidates.
I suspect Bloomberg’s campaign will stall quickly. But America is talking about him again, and for Bloomberg that will be worth the small change of $100 million dollars or so that it’s going to cost him.