So much for my (mostly) tongue-in-cheek endorsement of Michael Bloomberg for the Democratic 2020 nomination. As we discussed yesterday, the billionaire gun grabber pointed his private jet toward Iowa on Tuesday to address the masses and make his case for a presidential run. The big question on everyone’s mind was how he would approach the subject of ethanol. In the past, Bloomberg has been more than sharply critical of corn-based fuel, blaming it for people starving in other countries and calling government mandates and subsidies for the ethanol industry a national disgrace.

With that in mind, it takes some real character and conviction to go face down the voters in King Corn’s backyard and explain to them why their pet issue needs to be sidelined. So how did Bloomberg do? Yeah… he totally caved and knelt at the throne of King Corn just like almost all the other politicians. (NY Post)

Eyeing a possible presidential run, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg reversed his previous harsh criticism of ethanol and blasted away at President Trump, saying that someone should “take away” the president’s keyboard. Bloomberg made the comments after spending the day in agriculture-dependent Iowa, a crucial early battleground for presidential hopefuls. “I think that ethanol and bio fuels are part of the mix, there’s a place for it,” Bloomberg said, when asked about his previous criticism of government support for the corn-based fuel. “I think eventually, you’d like to get to a world where you don’t burn anything, that’s the way that you really clean the air the most. But we’re a long way from that, and I think ethanol… is part of the mix and it’s going to be part of the mix for a long time.”

So much for that. Michael Bloomberg talked a good game (and was absolutely correct) when addressing the issue of ethanol and the Renewable Fuel Standard as a civilian on the sidelines. But as soon as he prepared to dip a toe back into the political pool he did a 180-degree flip-flop that even drew high marks from the East German judge. Rather than being a “national disgrace,” ethanol now is an “important part of the mix” and will be “for a long time.”

The likely tragedy in all of this for Bloomberg is that he’s almost undoubtedly selling his principles to the highest bidder for no reason at all. The Democrats remain in the middle of a desperate search for presidential candidates who are younger, more socialist and far more “diverse.” They may not have solved that riddle yet, but if what they really wanted was another ancient white guy to run against Trump, they’ve already got Joe Biden.

Bloomberg just doesn’t fit the profile. Have you forgotten that he used to be a Republican? (Well… technically, anyway.) Sure, he wants to confiscate everyone’s guns and he’ll sing all the right songs about climate change, despite the fact that ethanol is terrible for the climate. He’ll draw polite applause from the Democratic base for that. But in the end, he’s another very white, considerably elderly New York billionaire. He’s going to look very out of place on the crowded primary debate stage.

And if his primary bid fails and he returns to the private sector, the one memory everyone will take away from all this was that Bloomberg sold out his principles on a moment’s notice when politics came into play. It’s a rather sad story, really.