Many of us viewed the sixth Democratic presidential candidates’ debate Thursday as a snooze fest, except for the fact that we learned about something we never even knew existed – wine caves.
Turns out that South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg needs to throw fancy parties at Napa Valley wine caves to raise money for his run for the White House. And he did it without taking even taking “a sip of the prized wine,” according to The Washington Post. He was just there for the Benjamins. And could you blame him?
According to news reports, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump ended up spending more than $1 billion to run against each other for president. But here’s a little-known fact, especially among younger voters: presidential candidates didn’t always need mega-cash.
PETE BUTTIGIEG'S WINE CAVE EXPERIENCE NOT JUST FOR BILLIONAIRES
Public financing was established in 1974 for presidential candidates. As a result, as President Jimmy Carter told me, he and his opponent Ronald Reagan raised “zero dollars” in their 1980 election battle.
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But George W. Bush exited the public financing system for primaries and caucuses in 2000 and Barack Obama declined public financing for the general election in 2008. The candidates decided they could raise more money on their own, instead of relying on public funding that prevented them from raising bigger bucks themselves.
But now Democrats are denouncing each other for doing what it takes to be elected president – raising lots and lots of money from people who have lots of money to give.
This has to leave everyone – especially Democrats – asking themselves: Is there anyone who could actually pass the unrealistic “purity” test of not needing to raise millions of dollars from outsiders to run for the presidency? Is there anyone who doesn’t need a Napa Valley wine cave?
The answer is: Yes. Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
Although he was not on the debate stage last week, Bloomberg actually won the debate. His ads were OK, but the point the Democrats wanted everyone to hear was this: no candidate is worthy of the highest office in the land if that person is bought and paid for by big-money donors (especially those who sip wine in caves).
This is great news, because both sides of the aisle can finally agree. Both Republicans and Democrats want an honest candidate who answers to no one. Both sides want someone who is not bought and paid for by anyone. All of us want the only self-funded candidate running for office. So everyone wants Mike Bloomberg!
Without knowing it, by criticizing the billionaires, the caves of wine, and the Bern donors, everyone running for president (including the man himself, President Trump) has indirectly endorsed Mike Bloomberg.
Hear me out.
Everyone has set the bar so high that they might as well pack up their campaigns and go home now because Bloomberg is the only candidate who doesn’t need anyone’s money. He’s the candidate who all others wish they could be.
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And at the end of the day, I think this fact is making Trump nervous. Very nervous. Bloomberg is the one candidate Trump knows he can’t beat. Bloomberg is the man Trump told us he was: a self-made billionaire who knows the “art of the deal.”
Bloomberg is the candidate Trump said he was in 2016, when he won the presidency.
But here’s the truth: Trump was born into wealth, with an inheritance of over $400 million, according to news reports. His father actually started a successful real estate empire and became the first Trump billionaire.
I hate to say it, but I will: it’s almost like President Trump took Bloomberg’s actual story of growing up with a dream and then working hard to achieve it. It’s as if Trump lived in New York City while Bloomberg was running it, read his biography, tweeted insults to the sitting president, bankrupted a casino or two (which I hear is very difficult to do), and then ran for office and won – with Bloomberg’s actual life story.
Call the Democratic debate last week a snooze fest. Call it anything you want. I call it a real eye-opener.
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I’m thankful all of us learned what a fundraiser in a cave is, and the evil that presidential candidates Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders say it represents. Because now all American voters know the truth: all politicians running in the 2020 election (even a sitting president holding rallies to raise money) are bought and paid for. All except for one.
In 2020, voters finally have the candidate Trump told them they deserve. And that candidate is the winner of last week’s debate: Mike Bloomberg.