Mike Bloomberg could end up being sorry he just qualified for the Democratic debate

| 7:00 pm EST February 18, 2020
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Mike Bloomberg has now officially qualified for Wednesday’s Democratic 2020 presidential primary debate in Nevada, after a massive TV ad campaign and a surge in the national polls. Other candidates are criticizing Bloomberg for essentially buying his way into the debate, and that criticism is fair. But I believe the other candidates actually benefit from this – and Bloomberg could end up wishing he hadn’t qualified.

There’s a popular argument that Mike Bloomberg unfairly benefits from being included in the debate. But considering how much he’s surged in the polls without having been in any of the debates since he launched his campaign, it’s clear that his exclusion hasn’t hurt him – so it’s difficult to argue that he’ll benefit by being included. There’s a far stronger argument to be made that the most fair thing to do for his competitors is to put him on stage with them.

Up to now, Bloomberg has gotten to choose what he wants to say in his TV ads, and choose which media interviews to do. This means he hasn’t had to directly face tough questions, or talk about any topic that he hasn’t want to address. But once he’s on the debate stage, the moderators will hit him with the tough questions he needs to answer, including his stop and frisk history, his alleged mistreatment of women, and so on. If Bloomberg gives unsatisfactory answers to these questions on live national television during the debate, his surge in the polls could quickly collapse.

The debate also gives the other Democratic candidates the opportunity to raise their concerns about Mike Bloomberg directly to his face. He’ll then get the chance to respond to those concerns. The point of a debate is to see how all of the various candidates are able to hold up under direct scrutiny. So let’s see how well Bloomberg does or doesn’t hold up on stage. If it doesn’t go well for him, he could end up regretting having qualified.