BALTIMORE, Maryland Febryary 5, 2016 - As the last two Democrats duke it out in New Hampshire, and the 8 surviving Republicans jockey for position, a lot of eyes are looking at former New York Mayor and Iconoclastic Billionaire Michael Bloomberg as he mulls an independent run for President. Meanwhile, a new Quinnipiac National Poll shows that Bernie Sanders has pulled to within two points of Hilary Clinton. That same poll in December showed Clinton with a commanding 31 point lead. (Below is the site on the web of the entire Politico Story on the poll results.)
How bad are the results for the Clinton Campaign? The Liberal News Site, Politico, posted this banner headline: "National Poll: Sanders zooms into virtual tie with Clinton; Quinnipiac poll is a major shift from December, when Clinton held 31 point lead".
Normally, it is assumed that an independent run will be unsuccessful for the candidate, but might well doom the chances of the political party most closely associated with the independent candidate's political positions. Bloomberg, of course, is a profound liberal during his three terms as Mayor of New York City. So you would expect the Democrats to be cringing as he makes up his mind. And they are. But they aren't alone. The reason is that Bloomberg is so rich and so well-known that if he, indeed, throws everything into a real independent run, he might be able to actually win.
Now, don't panic and assume the presidency is Bloomberg's for the asking. It isn't. First, it is very very late and he might have all kinds of trouble getting on the ballot in a lot of states.
And Reuters Columnist Rob Cox - the wire service's so-called "Breaking News Columnist," - points out another fly in Bloomberg's ointment: for a liberal, he has the closest possible ties to Wall Street. How close? Wall Street is why Bloomberg is rich.
Cox reports in his February 4 column at the Reuters Web Site that Bloomberg may be ready to enter the race as soon as early March, assuming, as most analysts do, that Sanders scores a decisive win in New Hampshire to throw the Democratic race into a real dogfight, with both candidates in effect cancelling each other out. The first pin in Bloomberg's plan was the extremely narrow win - if it was, indeed, an actual win - in the Iowa Caucus. We say "if it was a win" in the wake of the call, by the inflluential Des Moines Register, for a complete audit of the Iowa Caucus results, at least on the Democratic side.
If Bloomberg does enter the race with a full-throated push, there will be increased pressure on the Republicans to stop shooting themselves in the foot. The continued and ridiculous sniping by Donald Trump and Ted Crews, aimed at each other, is doing great damage to the GOP when it comes time for the General Election. Rush Limbaugh calls the goings on "a circular firing squad." Leave it to Mr. Limbaugh. One can almost imagine the TV ads, featuring whichever Republican Candidates lose, bashing the eventual winner. The sponsor of these ads would be, of course the Democrats. Many GOP pundits, chief among them Limbaugh and Mark Levin, have done everything in their power to convince Trump and Crews to stop the personal bashing and concentrate on the real GOP enemy: the Democrats. So far, both have ignored the impassioned, and, I believe, quite correct and reasoned advice.
But then on Thursday night Trump refused to bite when CNN's Anderson Cooper pushed him about Crews. Trump's response was, in essence, so what? Limbaugh thought Trump was reacting to Limbaugh's impassioned but logical plea to the candidates to back off. If Trump is now heeding the advice, the GOP as a whole will succeed. A big "if" however, is whether Crews also will back off. Trump won't stay silent for long if Crews continues to snipe. Polls released at midweek indicated that Marco Rubio had pulled even with or even moved ahead of Crews in New Hampshire. Polls also indicated that Trump's once commanding lead in New Hampshire had shrunk.
The coverage of the election remains ludicrous on Fox, which is openly rooting for Rubio (while still paying lip service to Jeb Bush) and all but ignoring Crews and Trump.
The Quinnipiac Poll is a stunner for both Sanders and Clinton. The way it is being handled at Politico tells the story. See the Politico story at http://www.politico.com/story/ 2016/02/national-poll-republicans-democrats-218807#ixzz3zJkOYjVw
The Quinnipiac poll caps a week of very bad news for Clinton. While she is, at present, being credited with the narrowest of wins in Iowa, the closeness of the race and the equal split of delegates to the national convention are a far cry from the landslide win Clinton had started out with. As her legal troubles rapidly intensify, and a possible indictment looms on the horizon, victory is anything but assured.
The Democrats haven't exactly heeded advice to lay off each other and concentrate on the GOP. The debate Thursday night featured both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders ripping into each other for supporting Wall Street-related policy initiatives. Many pundits see these two just getting warmed up, especially if the Sanders campaign gets successful results in New Hampshire and then further down the line. The Clinton campaign is banking on a quick knockout of Sanders once they put New Hampshire behind them. But if Clinton fails - and there have been few candidates as clumsy as Hillary - she will be forced to continue to tack left. When the general election campaign finally starts, she may find herself so far left that she will not be in a position to go moderate against the GOP. Right now, she is being forced to defend herself against charges of being a moderate by Sanders. She does this by pointing out her far left, even uber left, credentials.
It is these kind of results that are shown in the Quinnipiac Poll that keep the Clinton people up at night. Well, Bill was probably already up.
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