No, Michael Bloomberg, just no

| 7:30 pm EST November 7, 2019
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Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is preparing to enter the 2020 Democratic presidential primary race, according to the New York Times. Bloomberg is likable enough for a moderate. He proved in New York that he’s politically competent. And unlike Donald Trump, Bloomberg is an actual successful businessman. But this is just so wrong. Wrong race, wrong timing, wrong climate, wrong everything.

It’s not difficult to understand why Mike Bloomberg wants to enter the race. He’s right in the middle politically, and he definitely wants Donald Trump gone. But he’s hoping that Trump’s replacement will be someone closer to the middle such as Joe Biden, as opposed to someone on the far left like Elizabeth Warren. Seeing how Warren’s poll numbers keep rising and she’s catching up to Biden, Bloomberg figures he has to jump in and provide Democratic primary voters with a more moderate alternative.

But Mike Bloomberg’s move is likely to have the opposite impact that he’s hoping for. All he’ll do is pick off a few percentage points worth of Biden’s supporters, prompting Biden to fall in the polls, and boosting Elizabeth Warren’s standing in the polls. In other words, Bloomberg runs the risk of handing the nomination to Warren when it might have otherwise gone to Biden, which is the opposite of what he claims to want.

Without taking sides as to whether Joe Biden or Elizabeth Warren (or one of the other candidates) should be the nominee, Michael Bloomberg isn’t doing anyone any favors here. Warren is already splitting votes with Bernie Sanders. Now Biden is going to have to split votes with Bloomberg. All this will do is drag out the primary race even longer, all to make room for a guy like Bloomberg who has zero chance of being the nominee. The race is already overcrowded with candidates polling near zero. Even if you like Bloomberg, nothing feels right about this. Perhaps he’ll reconsider.