Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Primary Update

Pago Pago, American Samoa, photo by NOAA via Wikipedia.

When the radio announcer ends the summary with "....and Mike Bloomberg won American Samoa" it's like Weekend Update with Chevy Chase. It makes me laugh out loud.

More important, as Fox reports, Bloomberg spent over $5 million per delegate in Super Tuesday states. Apparently he didn't have a fully staffed field office in Pago Pago, as I imagined, putting together the almost 200 votes it took to get his terrific win over Tulsi Gabbard (it's possible all her voters went to high school in Hawaii, as many Samoans do, and knew her from back when, but I warn you I'm making that up):
He didn't spend much in American Samoa, the only contest he won outright, just $904 on digital. In fact, the only state or territory where Bloomberg spent less was Wyoming. 
By comparison, Joe Biden, who won the most states on Super Tuesday, spent just over $2 million in total on television, radio and digital advertisements in those 14 states. (NBC)
Which makes me briefly wonder of the era of money could really be over. Biden spent less than anybody else, mostly because he'd just about run out of money by the time of the South Carolina primary that turned his fortunes around, but he did extremely well.


In the same way Trump, in 2016, had only about $600,000 in the campaign to Clinton's $1 billion, and pushed $12 million of that into his businesses
reimbursement for flights, hotel stays, meals and services for him and his staff members, as well as office space in the tower he owns on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. His preferred mode of transportation — his private aircraft — made up the largest chunk of money that went back into Trump entities, $8.7 million.
though you can't say on the basis of those known figures he made a profit, since he donated $65 million of his own money (less than the $100 million he'd promised the GOP). Anyway Bloomberg may have finally entered national politics at the moment when it's no longer possible to buy elections on a private basis.

I'm continuing to rethink Biden, preparing myself for the inevitable when we must all turn to him, and kind of asking Senator Warren to not quit just yet, or hold out on endorsing anybody is she must quit (money still does matter if you don't have any coming in at all)—






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