Erielle Davidson asks in a Federalist column whether billionaire former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg would do a better job than former Vice President Joe Biden of presenting a moderate face to voters.
Bloomberg’s renewed flirtation with a [presidential] run suggests many in the Democratic establishment are increasingly wary of how the party’s far-left takeover will look to voters amidst the wavering campaign of former vice president Joe Biden, whose dismal third-quarter fundraising numbers may account for some of the alarm.
The numbers, reported on Monday, were less than impressive for Biden, who landed in a distant fourth, behind Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Pete Buttigieg. …
… Warren is now the frontrunner, capturing 30 percent of the vote among Democratic voters and left-leaning independents and leading Biden by a three-percent margin. Wall Street and the Democratic establishment are reportedly “bracing” for the possibility of a Warren nomination, if one accepts the assumption that Wall Street doesn’t think it can play ball with government.
But some, like Bloomberg, seem to be less accepting of the party’s fate, as evidenced by Bloomberg’s alleged renewed interest in running. Bloomberg likely envisions himself as the so-called moderate candidate to fill the centrist lane, should Biden’s campaign nosedive.
The Biden versus Warren divide highlights the uneasy marriage between establishment Democrats and their far-left, who often agree on the political end goal but patently disagree on how far left the party should position itself in the 2020 election. As The New York Times pointed out on Monday, though Warren is becoming the top contender for the Democratic nomination, she still has failed to secure a single endorsement from a governor, big-city mayor, or fellow senator outside of her home state of Massachusetts.
