Bloomberg starts his run late, but has some advantages

Michael Bloomberg, who formally announced his US presidential candidacy on Sunday, just three months before the first primary, has the disadvantage of starting late, but his wealth and substantial experience will drive his "now or never" ambition forward, analysts said.

The former three-term New York City mayor and billionaire media mogul pledged to "rebuild America" as he joined the crowded field of Democrats seeking to take on President Donald Trump at a time when Bloomberg believes the "stakes could not be higher".

"We cannot afford four more years of President Trump's reckless and unethical actions. He represents an existential threat to our country and our values," Bloomberg said in a statement Sunday. "If he wins another term in office, we may never recover from the damage."

In the written statement posted on a campaign website, Bloomberg described himself as uniquely positioned to defeat the Republican president.

"I believe my unique set of experiences in business, government and philanthropy will enable me to win and lead," he said, as a $30 million campaign ad hit US airwaves portraying him as "jobs creator, leader, problem-solver".

Bloomberg has considered running for president several times before but never followed through.

"At 77 years old, he thinks he sees an unsettled field with no clear front-runner, so he has decided it's now or never," Cal Jillson, a political scientist and historian at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, told China Daily.

Jillson said Bloomberg will be a moderate Democrat in a field that already has two fairly strong moderates in Joe Biden, the former US vice-president, and Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana.

He will compete with Biden and Buttigieg to become the moderate alternative to the progressive liberal agendas of prominent US senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

"So he will have to spend lots of money between now and the early events, which he plans to skip, and then really open the financial spigots. He hopes that a major advertising campaign in the run-up to Super Tuesday will open a spot for him in the moderate lane," Jillson said.

William A. Galston, a senior fellow in governance at the Brookings Institution, said Bloomberg seems to believe that the other "moderate" candidates are unlikely to win the nomination or to defeat Trump.

"It may not change the overall levels of support for the other candidates, but it will dramatically shift the balance of information that voters will receive," Galston told China Daily.

Galston said a late start makes it very difficult to succeed, as Rudy Giuliani discovered in his 2008 presidential campaign.

He said Bloomberg's advantages are "unlimited money, high name recognition, and his longstanding involvement in issues important to Democratic voters, such as climate change, immigration and gun safety".

Ranked by Forbes as the eighth-richest American with an estimated worth of $53.4 billion, Bloomberg is expected to follow with a massive advertising campaign blanketing airwaves in key primary states across the US, according to US media reports.

Bloomberg said he would be "the only candidate in this race who isn't going to take a penny from anyone and will work for a dollar a year".

"In reality, his wealth and willingness to spend it will mitigate his late-entry disadvantages," said Stanley Renshon, a political scientist at City University of New York. He said his advantages are "substantial experience in a powerful role; his 'centrist' brand (which is also a disadvantage), and his wealth, which also cuts both ways".

Trump didn't tweet directly his response to Bloomberg's entry to the presidential race on Sunday, but retweeted a post that claimed that "The only real winners are the advertisers because his campaign is dead on arrival!"

On Nov 8, when he was asked to comment on Bloomberg's entering the race, Trump told reporters, "He's not going to do well, but I think he's going to hurt Biden, actually. But he doesn't have the magic to do well."

On Sunday, Bloomberg expressed his confidence in doing well.

"I've spent my career bringing people together to tackle big problems – and fix them. It has worked well in business – and in running the country's largest, most progressive city," he said. "I know it can work in Washington, too – and I have the leadership skills and experience to make it happen."