Inside the Democratic Race (Part 1)

For this week’s blog, I reached out to a friend who is a veteran Democratic operative with more than 20 years on national political campaigns, and currently a consultant for one of the remaining presidential hopefuls. In an anonymous interview, he offered an insider’s candid view of the race, billionaires, socialists, sexism, racism, and the relative odds of victory, wipeout, and the end of American democracy, among other things.

Here is part one of two….

DODGING THE PENDULUM

THE KING’S NECKTIE: Last week I had the exact same argument twice in a row. First — and I’m sure you experienced it even more heavily than I did — a huge chunk of the Democratic Party was suddenly shouting, “Bloomberg’s the great centrist hope!” And in response there was this kind of mass hysteria from the left wing of the party, and the Bernie folks were furious, saying things like, “I’d vote for most of these nominees, but I would never vote for Bloomberg!”

MR. X: That was a moment when Bloomberg had to prove himself. He put in all his chips — $350 million at that point, and now it’s about $500 million — and he looked strong and was polling well, and the Bernie people set their hair on fire because their view was that the nomination was being stolen by an oligarch. But we all know who Bloomberg is, which is a Republican in sheep’s…