The last thing the Democrats want is yet another candidate

Michael Bloomberg's late late entry into the Democratic presidential nomination race is bad news for the Democrats for a number of reasons. First, the current frontrunners have been battling away for months trying to get their nose ahead of the race and are probably already suffering from campaign fatigue, so what they don't want is to hear about a billionaire putting his hat into the ring. Second, Bloomberg's decision to join the Democratic stampede says loud and clear that he doesn't think there's anyone in the hustings right now worthy or able to take on Donald Trump. Does that matter? Well, it probably does because it might make Democrat voters think Bloomberg is right and that Trump is going to get an easy ride for a second four-year term in the White House. Bloomberg has had three terms as mayor of New York and has a vast fortune, supposedly worth $57 billion, a figure beyond comprehension for the likes of you and me. It's so much that if he spends $1 billion on his election campaign over the next few months, he and his bank manager won't even notice. So no problem with promoting the Bloomberg vision, provided he has on, with marketing and ad camaigns. He is 77, so, like Joe Biden, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, he is definitely in the ageing generation of political figures. Trump has already derided him by focusing on his size. He is not a tall man. He is only 5ft 6ins. Trump is 6ft 2-3ins depending on his hair on any one day. So Bloomberg is filthy rich but short. Why does he feel he should enter the race, does he really believe he has a better chance to beat Trump than Biden or Warren or Buttigieg? When you are that rich you have a different view of the world, and a different belief in your own abilities. That's either a good thing if you are genuinely visionary and in touch with the common folk, or a bad thing if it means you have no idea how the average person lives. But having been mayor of New York for three terms I'm sure he must have got around to see how the other 95 per cent of people struggle along with their lives. So perhaps his late entry into the race may be a good move. It will certainly increase the competition between the current frontrunners. Whether his wealth and background will win the nomination, I suspect is unlikely. He will spend an awful lot of his own money but I predict that he will fall by the way side next year, as Biden, Warren and one other - Sanders or Buttigieg - keep ahead of the game.