Real talk time: This election cycle has been pretty whack. Hilary Clinton sucks. Donald Trump sucks. Ted Cruz sucks. Chris Christie and Marco Rubio? Whatever. Ben Carson? I don’t even know why he’s in this race. Bernie Sanders is likable, but he’s so radical that he’s *probably* unelectable.
For political moderates who make up the majority of the country, the whole damn things feels like a race to the bottom. But now it seems like $39-billion-dollar man Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City (…and America’s most infamous hater of Big Gulps) is considering throwing his hat in the ring.
In a huge exclusive with the Financial Times, Bloomberg went in on the level of discourse in the current election cycle. Via:
“I find the level of discourse and discussion distressingly banal and an outrage and an insult to the voters,” Mr Bloomberg said in an interview, before adding that the US public deserved “a lot better”.
His comments follow a New York Times report last month that said the billionaire had told advisers to draft a plan for a run as an independent candidate that could see him spending as much as $1bn of his estimated $39bn fortune. Mr Bloomberg told the FT that he would need to start putting his name on ballots across the US at the beginning of March. “I’m listening to what candidates are saying and what the primary voters appear to be doing,” he said.
It’s still up in the air whether he’d run as a Republican or an Independent. But if he jumps in the race, it will dramatically alter the potential outcome — Bloomberg is a fiscal conservative but a social liberal who is brazenly outspoken on issues like gun control and environmental issues. But the interesting thing that could happen here is what happens if he runs as an Independent against, hypothetically, Bernie Sanders on the Democratic ticket and Donald Trump on the GOP ticket.
If Bloomberg has the support to actually wins states massive electoral college states like New York or California, there’s a chance no candidate hits the 270 electoral votes needed to be elected President. This event would push the vote to the House of Representatives, which is currently controlled by the GOP.
The next couple months are going to be a shitshow. Buckle up.