Failed presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg spent $600 million to win 44 delegates, which works out to exactly $13.6 million per delegate.
According to the latest vote tally, Bloomberg, who dropped out of the race Wednesday morning, has won 1,661,135 votes (this will go up a bit as Super Tuesday counts dribble in), which works out to an incredible $361 per vote.
As far as states, Bloomberg spent more than a half billion — with a “B” — to win … zero states. He did win a place I’ve never heard of called American Samoa.
In all fairness, compared to fellow billionaire Tom Steyer, Bloomberg looks like a thrifty bargain shopper.
Tom Steyer spent $252 million on his failed presidential campaign, which works out to a quarter of a billion dollars to win zero delegates.
Steyer also paid $1,213 for each of his 207,653 votes.
What Bloomberg had, though, that Steyer never did, and that was media hype.
Bloomberg enjoyed a few of those news cycles in the establishment media most candidates can only dream of.
Our media, of course, are looking for a Trump Killer and as Slow Joe Biden appeared to falter and no one seemed interested in the media’s favorites (Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, and Kamala Harris), the media turned to Bloomberg for a few days to boost his chances.
But then Mini Mike stepped on to that debate stage in Nevada, and it all came tumbling down. By then he had spent some $300 million building himself up as The Mighty Trump Slayer, and then when forced to actually present himself to the voters, he was exposed as a bitter elf, an entitled sourpuss with all the charisma of an aspirin bottle.
The good news is that yet another media myth has been punctured, the idea money buys elections.
This certainly wasn’t true in 2016 when Hillary Clinton outspent Donald Trump by almost a quarter of a billion dollars, $581 million to $340 million, and that has been proven untrue again.
In the era of New Media and Social Media, as counter-intuitive as this sounds, you can’t hide behind your money. The media can no longer protect you. Everyone has a camera now, everyone has a voice, and information can no longer be bottle-necked by a handful of fascist corporations. Eventually you have to present yourself to the voters, to the public, and if you don’t live up to all the hype you purchased for yourself, the results can be especially devastating.
Bloomberg, who’s pushing 80, did have a pretty solid legacy as a successful businessman and three-term mayor of New York City. But now that’s all been tarnished by this ridiculous vanity campaign, which will go down in history as the most disastrous financial investment ever.
What’s more, his debate performance will be remembered forever, used as a historical marker to compare political debate performance for the next 50 years — and not in a good way. You can hear the speculation now… Will so-and-so pull a Bloomberg tonight? and Well, he didn’t do very well in tonight’s debate. It was no Bloomberg, but it was a bad night.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.