The five Democratic presidential contenders had their day in the first joint appearance with Michael Bloomberg.
Now it is quite likely that the former New York mayor, a late entrant into the Democratic primary fight, will be ready for Round Two.
The candidates will face off again next Tuesday in advance of the upcoming Super Tuesday primary featuring contests that will select about one-third of the delegates to this summer’s Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee.
Do I want Bloomberg to clean their clocks? Not necessarily. I merely want to warn the devotees of those who beat the stuffing out of Bloomberg that presidential confrontations have a history of reversing political fortunes.
Two example stand out:
- Recall the 1984 debates between President Reagan and former Vice President Walter Mondale. The GOP president stumbled, mumbled and bumbled his way through the first encounter. Many in the media considered him washed up, that age was getting the better of him. The president came back in the second round and was asked whether, based on his first performance, he was up to the job. Reagan said he would not “exploit for political purposes my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” Game over. Reagan was re-elected in a monumental landslide.
- In 2012, President Obama faced GOP challenger Mitt Romney in a series of debates. Round One was a disaster for Obama. Romney went on the attack. He had the president off balance for the entire encounter. They came back for the second debate and President Obama asserted his knowledge of governance and totally turned the tables on the former Massachusetts governor. Obama won re-election.
And so … as we ponder whether Michael Bloomberg is up to the task of fending off the frontal assaults of his fellow Democratic contenders, I must caution everyone that the world’s ninth-richest individual and a former mayor of the nation’s largest city didn’t obtain his status as a business powerhouse by being a dumba**.
He’ll be ready.
The rest of the field had better be on their toes.