Mike Bloomberg got clobbered in his first Democratic debate, raising questions about his ability to serve as the moderate wing’s best hope to counter Bernie Sanders’ democratic socialism and Donald Trump’s budding authoritarianism. But the former New York mayor appears as confident as ever—unbowed by his underwhelming performance, and apparently pursuing a bold strategy in which he could become the Democratic nominee without winning the most delegates before the July convention.

According to Politico, the Bloomberg campaign in recent weeks has been making overtures to allies of his centrist rivals like Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, and Amy Klobuchar, along with party establishment officials, in an attempt to get them to defect to him on a second-ballot contest. (FiveThirtyEight puts that odd at 2 in 5 that no Democrat wins enough pledged delegates before the convention). Bloomberg’s play, it seems, is to glue the various shards of the moderate vote together in support of the multibillionaire and to beat Sanders, the race’s frontrunner, at a brokered Democratic convention. “We have an enormous apparatus that is constantly reaching out to all types of people for support,” Bloomberg spokesperson Julie Wood told the outlet, “and to explain why we think Mike is the best candidate to take on Donald Trump.”

It’s an audacious strategy, not just because it would enrage progressives already suspicious that the establishment will attempt to undermine Sanders, but because Bloomberg hasn’t done much to explain why he, of all people, deserves to be the centrist savior. He has yet to compete for, let alone win, a single primary vote. He has, admirably, gotten under the president’s thin skin with well-calibrated attack advertisements, but Bloomberg has failed to articulate any real vision beyond I’m the guy who can beat Trump. Worse, Bloomberg himself seems to embody some of Trump’s own defects—his history of sexism among them—and up until recently spoke publicly about his affection for the president. How Bloomberg amounts to the safe bet for Democrats seeking an alternative to Sanders, let alone to beat the president in a general election match-up, is hard to see at this point. “Democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another,” Elizabeth Warren said in one of her many debate night smackdowns of the former mayor.

That debate, in Nevada, was an opportunity for Bloomberg to address the issues with his candidacy and to make a positive case for his electability and his agenda. But outside the controlled environment of ads, memes, and well-catered campaign stops, he failed to do so—seeming overwhelmed by his opponents’ attacks and ill-at-ease discussing policy, relying instead on bizarre platitudes about how being from New York somehow makes him more qualified than others to defeat Trump. Adviser Howard Wolfson accepted the lion’s share of the blame for the flat outing. “I led the debate prep and I accept the responsibility for inadequately preparing him,” he told the New York Times. But it seems like the guy who has cast himself as the party’s best hope should be able to outshine the Democrats whose purported liabilities inspired him to run in the first place.

The outlying factor here, of course, is Bloomberg’s practically infinite wealth—and his campaign’s willingness to filter reality through its meme machine until he looks like the sure bet to unite the party against Trump, where Sanders would, he said, constitute a “fatal error” for the Democrats. A primary is different than a general election, to be sure, but Sanders—seeming to pull away from his primary rivals—has generated significant enthusiasm for his candidacy. Bloomberg, who hasn’t quite done the same, could see the convention in Milwaukee as his best shot: Vanquish his moderate rivals after he starts competing Super Tuesday, unite their bases behind him, and take down Sanders. “There’s a whole operation going on, which is genius,” a strategist told Politico. But it’s not a given it would work; it relies on other moderates dropping out, and as Axios noted Friday, it’s not clear any plan to do so soon. In fact, a whole bunch of candidates might be similarly holding out for a contested convention. Congresswomen and Sanders supporter Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez questioned the fairness of any candidate attempting to become the nominee if they don’t win the most delegates.

For all its concern about a Sanders nomination, any appearance that party establishment is willing to pull the rug out from under him would surely antagonize his large, fervent base—especially if it’s to nominate a billionaire ex-Republican with heavy baggage of his own. As former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe put it on MSNBC after the Nevada debate: “The notion that the Democratic Party is going to have party insiders overturn the will of the voters—I just don’t think it’s gonna happen.”

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